Why Is “Mayday” the International Distress1 Call? 为什么“Mayday”是国际求救信号？

梁小明

If your pilot calls “Mayday” on the communications system， youre in big trouble.

如果你们的飞行员在通讯系统上呼叫“Mayday”，那意味着你们有大麻烦了。

“Mayday” is an international distress call used by airplane pilots， boat captains and so on. The signal arose2 just after World War I， as air traffic between Britain and mainland Europe increased. All nearby nations needed an internationally understood signal that would alert people to urgent3 aircraft problems.

“Mayday”是一种由飞行员、船长等人员使用的国际求救信号。这一信号是在第一次世界大战后，随着英国和欧洲大陆之间的空中交通增加而产生的。所有邻近国家都需要一个国际通用的信号，提醒人们注意紧急的飞机问题。

Why not just use the standard “SOS” call that navy4 captains used when they were in trouble？ Well， ships communicated through telegraph5 using Morse code6， and this technology made “SOS” （three dots， three dashes， three dots） unmistakable. Differently， aircraft pilots used radio calls， and “SOS” could be misheard as other letters， like “F”.

为什么遇到麻烦时不直接使用海军使用的标准“SOS”求救信号呢？好吧，船只通过电报用摩尔斯电码通信，这项技术使“SOS”信号（三点，三长，三点）不易弄错。不同的是，飞行员使用无线电呼叫，而“SOS”可能会被误听为其他字母，如“F”。

Frederick Stanley Mockford， a senior radio officer in London， was put in charge of finding an appropriate7 code word. He reasoned that because so much of the air traffic flew between Croydon and Le Bourget Airport in Paris， it might make sense to use a French word.

弗雷德里克·斯坦利·莫克福德是伦敦的一名高级无线电通讯员，他负责寻找合适的密码词。他推断，由于有太多的空中交通往来于克罗伊登（英国东南部的城市）和巴黎的勒布尔杰机场之间，所以使用一个法语词可能行得通。

He came up with “Mayday”， the pronunciation of which is similar to the Freanch words which mean “come help me”. The U.S. formally8 made “Mayday” as a distress signal in 1927.

他提出了“Mayday”，它的发音与法语中意思是“帮帮我”的词语相似。1927年，美国正式采用“Mayday”作为求救信号。

Due to radio interference9 and loud noise， pilots are told to repeat the word three times. Although these can be panic-filled situations， the pilots are encouraged to offer information in the right order so that people know exactly what theyre dealing with.

由于无线电干扰和巨大的噪音，飞行员被要求重复三次这个词。尽管这些是可能会引起恐慌的情况，但仍旧鼓励飞行员按正确的顺序提供信息，以便人们确切地知道他们在处理什么情况。

Given its importance， most people respect this signal and use it only when necessary.

鉴于求救信号的重要性，大多数人都尊重这个求救信号，只有在必要时才使用它。

“Mayday” signals that theres an urgent and life-threatening situation in progress. However， people can also fall back on “pan-pan”， which means you have an urgent situation thats not immediately putting lives at risk—for instance， your boat ran out of fuel10 and you need help.

“Mayday”标志着有一个紧急和危及生命的情况正在发生。不过，人们也可以转而使用“pan-pan”，这意味着你有一个紧急情况，不会立即危及生命安全，例如，你的船没油了，你需要帮助。

（英语原文选自：science.howstuffworks.com）

【Notes】

1. distress   n. 危难，不幸 2. arise   v. 出现

3. urgent   adj. 紧急的;急迫的 4. navy   n. 海军

5. telegraph   n. 电报 6. Morse code 摩爾斯电码

7. appropriate   adj. 适当的;恰当的 8. formally   adv. 正式地

9. interference   n. 干扰，冲突 10. fuel   n. 燃料