"The Signal-Man" is a horror/mystery story by Charles Dickens, first published as part of the Mugby Junction collection in the 1866 Christmas edition of All the Year Round.The railway signal-man of the title tells the narrator of an apparition that has been haunting him. Each spectral appearance precedes a tragic event on the railway on which the signalman works. The signalman's work is at a signal-box in a deep cutting near a tunnel entrance on a lonely stretch of the railway line, and he controls the movements of passing trains. When there is danger, his fellow signalmen alert him by telegraph and alarms. Three times, he receives phantom warnings of danger when his bell rings in a fashion that only he can hear. Each warning is followed by the appearance of the specter, and then by a terrible accident.The first accident involves a terrible collision between two trains in the tunnel. Dickens may have based this incident on the Clayton Tunnel crash[1] that occurred in 1861, five years before he wrote the story. Readers in 1866 would have been familiar with this major disaster. The second warning involves the mysterious death of a young woman on a passing train. The final warning is a premonition of the signalman's own death"
This book is a powerful tool for understanding fiction and for transforming creative writing and taking it to new levels of clarity, energy and effectiveness. Learn what a story really is and what it is actually doing to and for readers, how all successful fiction follows universal patterns to attract and grip readers, the magnetic power that draws readers into a work of fiction even before the introduction of any character, what the thing called a 'character' actually is, and the secrets of how to rapidly build a convincing one that attracts readers, the things called 'plots', what they are and how they are actually made (rather than how you might suppose they are made). Find out about the writing model which, if followed, will create a machine generating unimaginable numbers of readers and heightened reader satisfaction for you, based on some of the most successful pieces of literature in the English-speaking world.
On the 9th of June 1865, Charles Dickens was travelling aboard the Folkestone to London Boat Train with his mistress and her mother, when it derailed while crossing a viaduct near Staplehurst in Kent. The train plunged down a bank into a dry river bed, killing ten passengers, and badly wounding forty. Dickens was profoundly affected by the disaster, and a year later, he published The Signalman, a supremely atmospheric ghost story in which the narrator, while investigating a dank and lonely railway cutting, meets the signalman who works there. His new acquaintance appears to live under the shadow of an unbearable secret, haunted by an apparition whose appearance prefigures terrible rail accidents. Drawing on Dickens own experiences, and introduced by Simon Bradley, author of The Railways, The Signalman is both an important piece of rail history, and a sinister tale which will make you think twice next time you enter the quiet carriage.
Your choice to become a Signalman is a very good one. The Signalman rating is one of the oldest in the Navy, and visual communication—the first form of nautical communications—continues undiminished in importance today. You will find your job interesting, rewarding, and full of the satisfaction that comes of service to the Navy and the United States. At the level of operating forces, communications, as you will learn, is truly the voice of command in a visible way. The communication organization aboard ship is under the control of the commanding officer. In the transmission and reception of signals and messages, communicators actively participate in the exercise of command. The fleet needs capable personnel in all ratings, because an effective naval force is only as good as the people who man the ships. Even with the most modern equipment, the force is seriously handicapped without competent personnel to operate and maintain that equipment. Good people are plentiful, but their capability depends on their training. This manual contains the basic knowledge you need for advancement in the Signalman rating. Skills in personnel advancement requirements (PARS), including a performance test, also are required, but these can only be developed through practice and experience. Personnel Qualification Standard (PQS) is a qualification for officers and enlisted personnel to perform certain duties. The Signalman PQS booklet, Visual Communication, NAVEDTRA 43354B, contains the fundamentals, systems, and watch stations recognized by CNET as the minimum qualification for Signalman supervisor aboard U.S. Navy ships. Included are expert lookout, flagbag operator, semaphore operator, searchlight operator, boat Signalman, amphibious Signalman, Signalman of the watch, in-port duty Signalman, recorder/ messenger, signal bridge spotter, and AN/KAS-1 operator. This PQS will assist you in becoming a more productive member of the Signalman community. As a part of the Navy's training program, Signalman, is designed to help you meet the occupational standards for advancement in the Signalman rating. To become an expert is quite a challenge, and you will derive considerable satisfaction from mastering the art of signaling. Through your initiative, study, practice, and hard work, the time will come when your shipmates will look upon you as an expert. THE SIGNALMAN RATING LEARNING OBJECTIVES: State the purpose of a Signalman aboard ship. Identify five areas in which Signalmen must be proficient. All the planning, organizing, and training that go into the makeup of a signal gang are designed for one purpose—to perfect the Signalman’s ability to transmit and receive messages vital to the operation of the ship. The Signalman mans the visual communication link with semaphore flags, flaghoist, and searchlights. In addition to visual communications, a Signalman also must be proficient in navigation. Navigation duties include the reading, stowing, and correcting of charts; being able to help pilot a ship in restricted waters; and being familiar with the Rules of the Road, navigational aids, and using navigational equipment. (Navigational duties are discussed in chapter 9.) In addition, the Signalman must be skilled in voice radio operations and procedures; be able to properly render honors and ceremonies; be experienced in the principles of recognition and be quick to recognize personal flags and pennants of U.S. and foreign officers; be able to act as expert lookouts; and be able to demonstrate know how in many other related skills.
An important interdisciplinary study, that establishes a general theory that accounts for the varieties of body language encountered in literary narrative, based on a general history of the phenomenon in the English language.
