having it transferred up the structure could be time consuming
Dad was a signaller in the wartime navy. Being a teenaged Ordinary Signalman in a destroyer, during action stations his position was in the wheelhouse/ops room. The radio operator would write down the message as received and Dad's job was to decode it, write it down in plain text on a message pad and take it up to the bridge just above. There he would hand it to the Yeoman of Signals who would give it to the Skipper. The Skipper would tell the Yeoman any reply and the Yeoman would write it down and give the reply to Dad. He then coded the reply and gave it to the radio operator for sending. Complicated?
He sometimes mentioned things from his time as a boy signaller in the battleship King George Vth. They were just like any bunch of Trenchard Brats. An example: One dark moonless night Dad's messmate went up top for lookout duty. Arriving there he reported for duty by calling out "Watch change! I'm here. You can all piss off now". The Commander (Exec for Americans) happened to be present in the watch-keeper's position, just behind the bridge and from the darkness came the reply. "I say! That's very kind of you" and off he pissed. Leaving one very bemused set of look-outs.
[They were at anchor in Scapa Flow at the time]
Both relocated.
