The Distress Call should only be used if your vessel is threatened by grave and imminent danger and you are requesting immediate assistance.

A Distress Call has absolute priority over all other transmissions and may only be transmitted on the authority of the skipper or the person responsible for the safety of your vessel.

The Distress Call is

• Mayday Mayday Mayday
• ‘This is (name & radio call sign of vessel in distress)’ spoken 3 times
• Mayday
• name and radio call sign of vessel
• details of vessel's position
• nature of distress and assistance required
• other information including number of persons on board

You may repeat the Distress Call as often as necessary until you receive an answer. If no answer is received on distress frequencies, you may repeat the call on any frequency where you believe you might attract attention.

You should not use the Distress Call in situations where an individual person aboard your vessel is threatened with immediate danger eg medical emergency. You should make an Urgency Call in these cases.

Distress frequencies

• MF/HF Transceivers , 4125, 6215, 8291 kHz
• VHF Transceivers Channel 16, with Channel 67 as a supplementary
• 27 MHz Transceivers 27.88 MHz (Channel 88) with 27.86 MHz (Channel 86) as a supplementary.