Annex IV – Distress signals
E191675
Annex IV – Distress signals is the section of the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea that lists the internationally recognized signals used by vessels to indicate distress and need of assistance.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Annex IV – Distress signals canonical | 1 |
| COLREGs Annex IV | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1701862 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Annex IV – Distress signals Context triple: [COLREGs, contains, Annex IV – Distress signals]
-
A.
Annex V
Annex V is the section of the MARPOL convention that sets international rules to prevent pollution of the marine environment by garbage from ships.
-
B.
Annex 5 Discharges from Vessels
Annex 5 Discharges from Vessels is a component of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement that sets out binational rules and standards to control and reduce pollution from ships in the Great Lakes.
-
C.
Annex IV Prevention of Marine Pollution
Annex IV Prevention of Marine Pollution is a component of the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty that establishes rules to prevent and control marine pollution in Antarctic waters.
-
D.
International Convention on Maritime Search and Rescue
The International Convention on Maritime Search and Rescue is a global treaty that establishes an international framework and standards for coordinating and conducting search and rescue operations at sea to enhance safety for persons in distress.
-
E.
Annex II
Annex II is the section of the MARPOL Convention that sets international regulations for controlling pollution from noxious liquid substances carried in bulk by ships.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Annex IV – Distress signals Target entity description: Annex IV – Distress signals is the section of the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea that lists the internationally recognized signals used by vessels to indicate distress and need of assistance.
-
A.
Annex V
Annex V is the section of the MARPOL convention that sets international rules to prevent pollution of the marine environment by garbage from ships.
-
B.
Annex 5 Discharges from Vessels
Annex 5 Discharges from Vessels is a component of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement that sets out binational rules and standards to control and reduce pollution from ships in the Great Lakes.
-
C.
Annex IV Prevention of Marine Pollution
Annex IV Prevention of Marine Pollution is a component of the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty that establishes rules to prevent and control marine pollution in Antarctic waters.
-
D.
International Convention on Maritime Search and Rescue
The International Convention on Maritime Search and Rescue is a global treaty that establishes an international framework and standards for coordinating and conducting search and rescue operations at sea to enhance safety for persons in distress.
-
E.
Annex II
Annex II is the section of the MARPOL Convention that sets international regulations for controlling pollution from noxious liquid substances carried in bulk by ships.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (46)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
annex of an international convention
ⓘ
maritime safety regulation ⓘ |
| administeredBy | International Maritime Organization ⓘ |
| appliesTo |
seaplanes on the water
ⓘ
vessels at sea ⓘ |
| associatedWith |
safety of life at sea
ⓘ
search and rescue operations ⓘ |
| basisFor | national maritime distress signal regulations ⓘ |
| codifiedIn |
Convention on the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea, 1972
ⓘ
linked to:
COLREGs
|
| defines |
audible distress signals
ⓘ
pyrotechnic distress signals ⓘ radio distress signals ⓘ visual distress signals ⓘ |
| includes |
a distress alert by means of digital selective calling
ⓘ
a distress alert transmitted by maritime satellite ⓘ a high-intensity white light flashing at regular intervals from 50 to 70 times per minute ⓘ a signal consisting of a square flag having above or below it a ball or anything resembling a ball ⓘ a signal made by any signalling method consisting of the group SOS in Morse code ⓘ a signal sent by radiotelephony consisting of the spoken word MAYDAY ⓘ a signal transmitted by emergency position-indicating radio beacon ⓘ a signal transmitted by search and rescue radar transponder ⓘ a smoke signal giving off orange-coloured smoke ⓘ continuous sounding of a fog-signalling apparatus ⓘ rockets or hand flares showing a red light ⓘ rockets or shells throwing red stars fired one at a time at short intervals ⓘ signal of a gun or other explosive signal fired at intervals of about a minute ⓘ slowly and repeatedly raising and lowering arms outstretched to each side ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| legalStatus | binding on contracting governments to COLREGs ⓘ |
| partOf |
COLREGs
ⓘ
International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea ⓘ |
| purpose |
to indicate distress and need of assistance
ⓘ
to specify internationally recognized distress signals ⓘ |
| regulates | maritime distress signals ⓘ |
| relatedTo |
Annex I – Positioning and technical details of lights and shapes
ⓘ
Annex II – Additional signals for fishing vessels ⓘ Annex III – Technical details of sound signal appliances ⓘ |
| requires | use of prescribed signals to indicate distress ⓘ |
| requiresComplianceBy | ships entitled to fly the flag of a contracting state ⓘ |
| safetyFunction |
to facilitate rapid recognition of distress
ⓘ
to reduce ambiguity in distress communications ⓘ |
| scope |
excludes signals used for other purposes
ⓘ
lists signals indicating distress and need of assistance ⓘ |
| shortName |
COLREGs Annex IV
ⓘ
linked to:
Annex IV – Distress signals
|
| usedIn |
coastal navigation
ⓘ
international navigation ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Annex IV – Distress signals Description of subject: Annex IV – Distress signals is the section of the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea that lists the internationally recognized signals used by vessels to indicate distress and need of assistance.
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.