room and fireroom. The watch is assigned to prevent sabotage and damage from other causes, to keep out unauthorized personnel, and to detect and eliminate fire hazards,  flood  hazards,  and  other  potentially  dangerous conditions. At the same time, cold iron watches are stationed  in  other  important  idle  machinery  spaces.  If not,   the   engine   room   and/or   fireroom   watches periodically  inspect  additional  spaces.  A  cold  iron watch  should  be  stationed  in  otherwise  unoccupied  idle firerooms and engine rooms underway as well as in port. A responsible petty officer must be assigned to supervise  the  cold  iron  watch. The  engineer  officer  should  require  posting  of  the daily  watch  list  at  least  24  hours  in  advance.  The engineer  officer  or  his  representative  must  approve  and sign the watch bill, and it may not be changed without approval  from  one  of  those  officers. DIRECTIVES Directives are instructions or notices used by a command   at   any   level   to   prescribe   policies, organizations,  procedures,  and  methods  that  serve  as guides  to  control  the  decisions  and  action  of subordinates. The Navy Directives Issuance System Manual,  SECNAVINST   5215.1C,   establishes   the directives system for the Navy and sets forth a simple and  uniform  plan  for  issuing,  filing,  and  maintaining directives under the system. Directives are assigned identifying numbers according to their subjects as listed in the  Department  of  the  Navy  File  Maintenance Procedures and Standard Subject Identification Codes, SECNAVINST  5210.11D. The following definitions of policies, procedures, orders,  instructions,  and  regulations  are  necessary  to understand  the  purpose  of  directives. l A military  POLICY  prescribes  the  course  of action  to  be  followed  in  a  given  situation.  Policies should be written, for they are used to gauge the action required  in  recurring  situations.  Policies  established  at the top levels are broad and general, whereas those established  at  lower  levels  must  be  more  specific  and conform to the higher level policies. l  A  military   PROCEDURE  is  a  series  of coordinated  steps  laid  out  for  the  performance  of functions. . A military ORDER is a formal oral or written command, issued by a superior officer to a subordinate. It establishes a rule or regulation or delegates authority for the performance of a function. l  An  INSTRUCTION  gives   information concerning the methods used to accomplish a mission. It specifies the manner and conditions of performance in  the  execution  of  projects  and  programs. . A military REGULATION  is a rule that sets forth  standards  governing  or  restraining  the  conduct  of individuals. . Navy INSTRUCTIONS are directives that have a long-term reference value and continue in effect until canceled by the originator. Instructions may contain information of a continuing nature or information that requires  continuing  action.  Instructions  also  direct action that cannot be completed in the near future or action that must be taken at a future date. . Navy NOTICES are  directives  that  apply  for  a brief period of time (usually 6 months or less) and provide  for  automatic  cancellation  on  a  prescribed  date or under a certain condition. Notices may require action that can be completed upon receipt or they may contain announcements and items of current interest. Directives  may  be  in  the  format  of  a  letter  or publication. A letter type is made up of one or several pages much like any other letter. A publication type is normally equipped with covers and contains a title page, a letter of promulgation, a record of changes page, a table of contents, and an alphabetical index of contents. The Standard Organization and Regulations of the U.S. Navy, OPNAVINST 3120.32B, is a publication-type directive. Certain shipboard directives are excluded from the directives system. They are the captain’s night order book, the ship’s plan of the day, the engineer officer’s night order book, the OOD’s standing order book, and the OOD’s memorandums. The  CO  issues  the  ship’s  directives  system  by issuing  two  instructions.  One  instruction  prescribes  the directives to be used in the system, the responsibilities of the originators of the directives, the directives control points  and  their  functions,  instructions  for  department and divisional use of the systems, and standards for reproducing  the  ship’s  directives.  The  other  instruction issues the distribution lists for the ship’s directives. The ship’s directives system provides for the wide dissemination of the policies of the CO, the XO, and the heads of departments. It supplies subordinate officers with a way to issue amplifying and supplementary instructions  that  place  the  policies  and  procedures  in effect.  The  system  makes  sure  the  ship’s  policies  and procedures  are  in  keeping  with  those  of  the  Navy Department  and  of  fleet  and  TYCOMs  by  permitting 1-22