What3words

In Dick Durham’s column ‘Help a ‘shipwrecked’ mariner’, November 2019 he describes a degree of confusion as to location when making a distress call. The free app ‘What3words’ works worldwide on land and sea dividing the planet into 20m squares. It is very simple and quick to use, even by non-experts. It is used by many emergency services, though not by the RNLI at present. John Sharvill The RNLI told YM it doesn’t use What3words but is looking into a range of innovative applications for the app. It works closely with the Coastguard, which uses the app as part of a suite of tools to help locate people.