Lighthouse and naval vessel urban legend

Common card · No. 204134

The lighthouse and naval vessel urban legend describes an encounter between a large naval ship and what at first appears to be another vessel, with which the ship is on a collision course. The naval vessel, usually identified as of the United States Navy or the United Kingdom's Royal Navy and generally described as a battleship or aircraft carrier, requests that the other ship change course. The other party, generally identified as Canadian or often Irish and occasionally Spanish, responds that the naval vessel should change course, whereupon the captain of the naval vessel reiterates the demand, identifying himself and the ship he commands and sometimes making threats. This elicits the response "I'm a lighthouse. Your call." or something similar, a punchline which has become shorthand for the entire anecdote. It has circulated on the Internet and elsewhere in particular since a 1995 version that was claimed to be a transcript of such a communication released by the office of the U.S. Chief...

Read on Wikipedia · Image U.S. Navy photo by Photographer's Mate Airman Rob Gaston, Public domain