The problem of locating submarine self‐noise sources is approached from the phase technique rather than the usual method of observing high amplitudes in certain frequency ranges. IndividualSONARhydrophones were simultaneously recorded at sea during various no‐target speed events and subsequently digitized in the laboratory. A digital computer was programmed to calculate the phase angle between selected pairs of hydrophones as a function of frequency, using the real and imaginary parts of the crosspower spectral density function. Low ship speeds exhibited broad frequency ranges having linear changes of phase as a function of frequency, indicating the dominance of a coherent source. High ship speeds showed more dispersion in the phase plots, but did display general groupings of points. If a velocity of propagation is assumed, then the slope of this line can be used to determine the bearing of the coherent noise source with respect to the hydrophones.