RULES OF THE NAUTICAL ROAD

1) APPROACHING SHIPS ARE SHOWN HERE IN COLLISION PERIL
2) TINY BOAT SOMETIMES HAS RIGHT OF WAY OVER BIG ONE
3) BLACK SHIP IS AT FAULT FOR RAMMING STATIONARY SHIP
4) LOOKOUT MUST BE STATIONED FAR FORWARD, NOT HIGH
5) LOW LOOKOUT SEES FARTHER IN FOG THAN HIGH LOOKOUT
6) LOOKOUT SHOULD BE PROTECTED FROM HEAVY WEATHER

7) SHIPS APPROACHING AT 315 DEGREES ARE IN DANGER OF A CRASH

8) ANCHORED SHIP SHOULD NOT BLOCK BUSY SHIPPING LANE

9) HARD-TO-MANEUVER TOW SHIP HAS RIGHT OVER FREE SHIP

10) SHIPS TIED UP TOGETHER MUST SHOW OWN ANCHOR LIGHTS

11) MASTHEAD LIGHT NEEDED ON STEAMSHIP, NOT ON SAIL

12) A ROCKET OR FLARE IS A STANDARD SIGNAL OF DISTRESS

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RULES OF THE NAUTICAL ROAD

A bible for Navy officers and men of the Merchant Marine is Lt. Commander Raymond Farwell’s The Rules of the Nautical Road. This is a rule book for navigating all kinds of ships under all kinds of conditions. Disney’s biggest single job for the Navy was to make a movie of this book, to be shown at naval training bases so these all-important rules can be studied in action.

As an object lesson, Disney begins his movie with a review of the terrible Halifax disaster in 1917 (see post above). He shows how the French ship, Mont Blanc, loaded with TNT, approached the Imo, a freighter with war-relief supplies for Belgium. The Mont Blanc signaled she was turning to starboard. The Imo seemed to confuse the signal, and turned to port. They collided. And the explosion demolished Halifax harbor and cost 2,000 lives.

Then the movie goes into a detailed discussion of individual rules, using clear-cut animated diagrams, some of which are reproduced below.

Disney’s device of using historical events to point up otherwise dull factual material will be developed further in a series of movies recently ordered by the Army. These will teach military strategy by showing how battles in the present war have been won and lost, and will be designed both for training and as spectacular historical documents. Advisor on this project is Military Expert Lieutenant Colonel Paul W. Thompson. Movies planned so far are Blitzkrieg in Poland, The Defense of France, Invasion of Greece and Campaign in the Low Countries. Campaigns will be seen from all angles, sometimes from high above, so that interlocking causes and effects can be studied, giving the beholder a God’s-eye view of history.

Life August 31, 1942