1.  Relative  bearings  use  the  ship’s  bow  as  a reference point. 2.  True bearings use true north (the geographic north pole) as the reference point. 3.  Magnetic bearings use the magnetic north pole as the reference point. Sometimes, all three types of bearings coincide, but such  situations  are  rare  and  of  a  temporary  nature. Lookouts report objects (contacts) in degrees of relative bearing. Figure 3-2 shows the relative bearings around a ship. An object dead ahead bears 000°, while an object abeam to starboard bears 090°, and so on. Study this figure, practice pointing to various objects. Compare your estimates of their bearings to what the objects actually bear. With practice, you should be able to report a contact within 5° to 10° of its actual bearing. To prevent confusion, the Navy uses a standard system for pronouncing numerals. The following list shows how numerals (numbers) are spoken: Bearings are always reported in three digits and spoken digit by digit, except that objects dead ahead or astern (000° or 180°), on either beam (090° or 270°), or on either bow (045°or 315°) or quarter (135° or 225°) may be reported as such. For example, a ship bearing 090° may be reported as being “abeam to starboard.” Do not become excited when you report contacts or other sightings. Failing to use the proper terminology can result in the OOD wasting time trying to find the object. Take a few seconds to think about how you are going to report the sighting. Taking that few seconds could mean the difference between the entire bridge looking on the wrong side of the ship for a sighting that is actually on the other side. Note that the word relative was not included. It is understood that lookouts report only in relative bearing. REPORTING TARGET ANGLE Target angle is the relative bearing of your ship from another ship. You may wonder why you would care what your ship bears from another ship. The OOD uses target angles as an aid in determining the course of actions when another ship is sighted. (Target angles are useful during gunnery and antisubmarine operations.) Look at figure 3-3. You are the starboard lookout and you detect a ship on your starboard bow heading at a right angle across your course. You report to the OOD, “Bridge, starboard lookout, ship broad on the starboard bow (or zero, fo-wer, fife), target angle tree wun fife.” Assuming that your course is 000°, the OOD knows the 3-14 Student Notes: Figure 3-2.—Relative bearings. NUMERAL PRONOUNCED 0 Zero 1 Wun 2 Too 3 Tree 4 Fo-wer 5 Fife 6 Six 7 Seven 8 Ate 9 Niner