Question 534 Rules of the Road

The correct answer is B) Manual sounding of the signals must always be possible. The reason this is the correct answer is that the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea (COLREGS) and the Inland Navigation Rules require that vessels have the ability to manually sound their bells and gongs, even if they also have automatic signaling equipment. This ensures that the sound signals can be operated in the event of a power failure or other malfunction of the automatic system. The other answer choices are incorrect because A) there is no blanket requirement for all vessels over 12 meters to have a gong, C) automatic sounding is permitted but not required, and D) even vessels under 12 meters must have some means of sound signaling, either manually or automatically.