Maydays

MAYDAY is the spoken radiotelephone distress signal, said three times to open a distress call on VHF channel 16 or MF 2182 kHz when a vessel or person is in grave and imminent danger. It comes from the French ’m’aidez’ (help me). The call gives the vessel name, position, nature of distress, assistance required, and persons on board. PAN-PAN signals urgency short of distress; SECURITE prefaces safety and navigational warnings. DSC has largely replaced voice alerting under GMDSS, with the voice MAYDAY following on the working channel.