IMO Standard Marine Communication Phrases (SMCP)

In November 2001 the draft of the IMO Standard Marine Communication Phrases (SMCP) that had been adopted by the Maritime Safety Committee in 1997 was amended, following international trials, and adopted by the Assembly as resolution A.918 (22). This resolution revokes A.380 (X), by which the Standard Marine Navigational Vocabulary was adopted in 1977.

The phrases are divided into part A and part B. Part A covers phrases to be applied according to the requirements of Table A-II/1 (minimum competence of officers in charge of a navigational watch on ships of 500 gross tonnage) of the STCW Code, and may thus be regarded as the replacement of the Standard Marine Navigational Vocabulary, 1985. This part is enriched by essential phrases concerning ship handling and safety of navigation to be used in on-board communications. Part B calls attention to other on-board standard safety-related phrases which, supplementary to part A, may also be regarded as useful for maritime English instruction.

Together with the publication, a pronunciation guide is available as software, on a compact disc, that can be used in a personal computer. The phrases can be selected by number, or found by searching words, before they are played.