Standard Marine Communication Phrases


The Standard Marine Communication Phrases is a set of key phrases in the English language, supported by the international community for use at sea and developed by the International Maritime Organization external communication phrases – ship to ship & ship to shore communication, 2) onboard communication phrases – communication within the ship.

Background

The SMCP were adopted by the 22nd Assembly of the IMO in November 2001 in a resolution which also promoted the wide circulation of the SMCP to all prospective users and all maritime education authorities.
The SMCP includes phrases which have been developed to cover the most important safety-related fields of verbal shore-to-ship, ship-to-ship and on-board communications. The aim is to reduce the problem of language barriers at sea and avoid misunderstandings which can cause accidents.

Examples