General Quarters

General Quarters or Battle Stations is an announcement made aboard a naval warship to signal the crew to prepare for battle or imminent damage.

When the call to General Quarters (GQ) is announced, the crew prepares the ship to join battle. Off-duty or sleeping crewmembers report to their stations and prepare for action, watertight doors and fireproof doors between bulkheads are shut and security is increased around sensitive areas, such as the bridge and engineering rooms.

While the term 'General Quarters' is used in navies such as the United States Navy, other navies, such as the Royal Navy use the term 'Action Stations'. In French, the term is Aux postes de combat ("to combat stations"), and was formerly branle-bas de combat, literally meaning that sleeping hammocks should be cleared off the gun deck, rolled, and stowed on the upper deck of the ship as protection against musket fire. The German Navy uses the term "Gefechtsstationen", meaning literally "combat stations". In Spanish the expression is "Zafarrancho de combate" (literally, "prepare stations to combat"). The Dutch Koninklijke Marine uses "Gevechtswacht op post" ("Combatants to stations").