Sometimes I hear ship whistles when visibility is poor. How LOUD are these things?
They are air operated. They carry a great distance but are really not that loud onboard. I am not sure of the decibel, but they carry long range frequencies. It goes back to the old days when ships met on the one or two whistle. It determines which side they will pass on or certain ones are used for docking and such.
I don’t have the exact details with me, but in my state, you are required by law to have a horn on board that is audible for a certain distance, that gets bigger with the size of your boat. In other words, a vessel from 18-22′ must have a horn audible to 1/2mile, 22’+ must be audible from 1 mile, etc. Then there is a cap-off obvioulsy. Decibals, I have no idea.
