Maritime Academy – Learn maritime signal flags & the International Code of Signals (ICS)

About Maritime Academy

The app teaches maritime flag signalling (generally flaghoist signalling), which is the principal means other than radio by which ships communicate to each other or to shore.

Virtually all signalling by non-naval vessels is now organized under the International Code of Signals (whether by flaghoist, semaphore, signal lamp, or other means), which specifies a standard set of flags and codes and is the most recent evolution of a wide variety of maritime flag signalling systems. Naval vessels generally use an extended set of flags and their own codes.

Teaching method & material

The two key teaching and training concepts are progressive introduction and focused repetition. The learning material is categorized into chapters and then broken down into manageable units (levels) to ensure efficient learning and training.

In general, the learning progresses from single-flag content to multi-flag content. That is to say, from letters & numbers to words & substitutes, and then to single flag meanings & abbreviations. The content is arranged for optimal efficiency and we strongly recommend you to go through the levels in this order.

• Letters (8 levels + 4 challenges)
• Numbers (3 levels + 1 challenge)
• Words (30 levels)
• Substitutes (1 level)
• Single Flag Meanings (8 levels + 4 challenges)
• Abbreviations (54 levels + 26 challenges)

Levels and challenges

In short, a level focuses on introducing and training new letters/numbers/abbreviations, while a challenge tests what you’ve learnt. In the learning screen, the knowledge you should focus on is highlighted and in the training screen, you will practice by answering a few questions (like a quiz game). In a challenge (it looks just like a level but with three lives (hearts)), you must make less than 3 mistakes to pass it.

Training types

There are three training types, that is to say, key, typing and button.

• In Letters & Numbers levels, you need to press the keys of the keyboard on the screen to answer the questions (as you can see in the 2nd screenshot of the previous section). Please note: you’ll get negative points (orange filling) if you click on the wrong key or it takes you too long to answer a question.
• In Words & Substitutes levels, you need to type whole words to answer the questions. Please note: every time you open a Words level, the words (short, medium, long etc.) will be randomly chosen from a large word bank consisting of thousands of English words, so even if you open the same Words level, you’ll most likely see different words.   
• In Single Flag Meanings & Abbreviations levels, you need to choose the correct meaning by clicking on a button.

Settings

Under Settings in Maritime Academy, you can 

• change the keyboard layout,
• enable/disable the interface sound (button, correct, wrong & win sounds),
• enable/disable button vibration,
• enable/disable key vibration,
• enable/disable vibration on error.

Explore screen

The Explore screen allows users to check out the International Flags and Pennants of the 26 letters of the English Alphabet, numbers (0-9), substitutes (3), as well as the International Code of Signals including 25 single flag meanings and 201 most frequently used abbreviations. Simply click on the blocks to start exploring.