passenger ships plying on regular lines (such as the cross-Channel
steamers) fly at the fore the national flag of the country to and from
which they sail.

The somewhat anomalous position of the ships of the East India Company,
many of which were given Letters of Marque in order to regularise
their position as combatants if they came into conflict with ships of
native states (or possibly with those of other European powers) in
Indian waters, has already been remarked. No trace can be found of
any formal grant of the Company's flag, and it seems most probable
that it was really the survivor of an early striped ensign such as
many ships, men-of-war or merchant, wore in the latter part of the
reign of Elizabeth and the early part of the reign of James. There
was, however, an early precedent of the grant of a special flag
to specified merchantmen to denote a privileged position. In 1581
Elizabeth, anxious to encourage the trade then being opened up with
Turkey, granted a Charter of Incorporation for a term of seven years
to Sir Edward Osborn and three other merchants, who might add other
Englishmen, not exceeding twelve in all, to their number. These were
allowed "to set and place in the tops of their ships and other vessels
the Arms of England with the red crosse over the same, as heretofore
they have used the red crosse, any matter or thing to the contrary
notwithstanding." On its expiry in 1588 this charter was not renewed,
but in 1593 Osborn and others were incorporated in a company to be
known as the Governor and Company of Merchants of the Levant, and they
were "to set and place in the toppes of their ships or other vessels
the Armes of England with the redde crosse in white over the same as
heretofore they have used." It would appear from these words that the
red cross in the original flag was bordered with white, although it
is not so described in the earlier charter. The Charter of 1593 was
found defective, and a new one was issued in 1601 which contained the
same clause, the name of the company being changed to the "Governor
and Company of Merchants of London trading into the Levant Seas." On
the death of Elizabeth this charter lapsed, and it was not until the
14th December, 1605, that another charter was issued. This charter,
which remained in force until 1825, omits all reference to the flag.
Possibly James already had in mind the Union flag that was established
early in the next year, and indeed the design of the Union flag is
distinctly reminiscent of the old Levant Company's flag--the banner of
Scotland taking the place of the Arms of England. The omission from
this charter of any provision for a special flag cannot have been other
than intentional, nevertheless the ships of the company seem to have
continued to use the old flag in Levant waters, for in 1625 Sir Thomas
Roe, then Ambassador to Turkey, issued a general proclamation "To all
Captaynes, Maisters, pursers and officers of any English shipps and
all other his Ma^{tie} Subjects serving or sailing in them within y^e
Levant Seas," ordering "that from hence forth they, nor none of them
presume to use or beare any other flagg or coulers than y^e usuall
flagge and Red Crosse of England, or St Andrewe of Scotland, neither
in the Levant Seas nor in any Port of the Grand Signior's Dominion,
upon what pretence soever." From this time the "usual flag and Red
Cross of England" became very prominent in those waters and gradually
replaced the French flag as protector of the lives and goods of
foreign merchants trading within the Sultan's dominions. The various
capitulations by which this was effected were consolidated in 1675 by a
Treaty of Commerce made between Mahomet IV and Charles II[335], which,
among other things, provided "that the Merchants of Spain, Portugal,
Ancona, Seville, Florence, Catalonia, and all sorts of Dutch and other
foreign Merchants ... might always come under the Flag and Protection
of the Ambassadors or Consuls of England."

[Illustration: PLATE XII Modern Ensigns, etc.]

There were other trading companies that, like the East India Company,
had or assumed the right to fly a special flag, in this case probably
only as a jack. One was the Guinea, or Africa, Company, the ships of
which from the time of Charles II onwards flew a St George's flag with
a chequered border of two rows of red and white squares. This practice
probably originated with the third company, chartered in 1662, and
of course expired on the dissolution of the fourth company in 1752.
Another was the so-called Scottish East India Company which started
its short life in 1695 and is best known from its disastrous attempt
to colonise the Isthmus of Darien. Its emblem of the rising sun (Plate
X, fig. 4) indicated the dawn of hopes that were doomed to an early
eclipse.

Special forms of the red ensign may be flown by merchant ships of three
of the British Dominions, viz. Canada, Australia and New Zealand. This
privilege was first granted to Canada in the year 1892, the badge of
Canada without the Crown (see Plate XII, fig. 7) being placed in the
centre of the fly.

In 1899 merchant ships registered in New Zealand were authorised to
wear a red ensign having in the fly four white stars, representing
the constellation of the Southern Cross. In this connection it may be
remarked that in 1834 the British resident in New Zealand proposed that
the New Zealanders should have a national flag. Three patterns were
sent over by the Governor of New South Wales, and by a narrow majority
the chiefs voted for the one represented in Plate XII, fig. 1. New
Zealand was then an independent country; in 1839 it was added to the
British dominions and after the grant of its Constitution in 1852 this
flag appears to have been dropped, to be subsequently revived by the
Shaw Savill and Albion Shipping Company, which now uses it as a "house
flag."

A red ensign for Australian merchant vessels was first approved in
1903. It had a six-pointed white star (indicating the six states) in
the centre of the lower canton and five smaller stars, representing
the Southern Cross, in the fly. In 1908 the large star under the Union
had the number of its points increased to seven (see the similar blue
ensign in Plate XII, fig. 3).

No other dominion or colony is at present allowed the privilege of
"defacing" the red ensign, but any colonial merchant vessel is at
liberty to carry, in addition to the red ensign, a flag containing the
badge of the colony, provided that such a flag is not "distinctive
national colours" (i.e. does not contain or imitate the Union).

A merchant ship commanded by a retired officer of the Royal Navy or by
an officer of the Royal Naval Reserve may fly the blue ensign under
Admiralty Warrant if the crew includes ten officers or men belonging to
the Reserve. The formation of a reserve among officers of the merchant
service was first authorised by Act of Parliament in 1861, and in the
following year it was decided that a merchant ship commanded by such an
officer might fly a blue ensign with a crown and the letters R.N.R. in
the fly; the abolition of the squadronal colours of the navy in 1864,
however, enabled the blue ensign undefaced by a device to be assigned
to the Reserves, and the device was thereafter omitted.

(v) PLEASURE CRAFT

For the introduction into Great Britain of craft built solely for
pleasure and large enough to navigate the open sea or the estuaries
of large rivers we need look no further back than the restoration
of Charles II. From the earlier years of the seventeenth century
the wealthy inhabitants of the Netherlands had included among their
recreations the sailing of specially designed boats upon their numerous
waterways. With the presentation to Charles in 1660 of two of the Dutch
yachts we may, for all practical purposes, date the inauguration of
this form of recreation in England. The fashion set by the King and his
brother gradually spread among the wealthier classes.

Except those belonging to the King, all such pleasure craft would
legally form part of the mercantile marine, and in the absence
of special permission to the contrary could only wear the flags
appropriated to that service. Yet from an early date the owners
attempted to appropriate to themselves some special distinction.
The failure of the Governor of Dover in 1676 to obtain the King's
permission to fly the Union jack on his private yacht has already been
noticed. This failure did not deter others from assuming such a right.
In 1686 the question of the liberty taken by private yachts to wear
the King's jack without license came before the Navy Board, and Pepys,
who was present, has left us the note upon the motives leading to such
evasions of the law, which has been already considered in Chapter III
(page 69).

The yachts belonging to James II (who reserved the Office of Lord High
Admiral to himself throughout his reign) flew, in addition to the royal
standard at the masthead and Union jack, a special red ensign, with
St George's cross in the canton, and in the fly an anchor and cable
surmounted by the royal crown.

The first attempt to democratise yachting and to form a club to
facilitate its enjoyment came, oddly enough, from the Irish, a nation
that has never, in spite of its natural advantages, shown any marked
liking for the sea. Yet by the formation of the Cork Water Club in
1720 Ireland took a lead that was not followed in England for nearly
a hundred years. The Club adopted as their distinctive flag the Union
jack with the harp on a green escutcheon in the centre, as in the
jack of the Protectorate; this escutcheon was also placed on the
Union in the canton of their ensign. Dissolved in 1765, this Club was
resuscitated in 1806, and was the progenitor of the existing Royal Cork
Yacht Club.

The first corporate body of yachtsmen to be formed in England was the
Royal Yacht Club (now the Royal Yacht Squadron) founded at Cowes in
1815, when the close of the long war with France rendered the Channel
safe for such a form of amusement. As a distinctive flag, this Club
chose a white ensign with the Union in the canton but without the St
George's cross in the fly. For six years the Admiralty took no notice
of the breach of the law involved in flying such a flag, but in 1821
the number of yachts had so increased that the Commander-in-Chief at
Portsmouth drew attention to the fact that a large number of small
craft were flying an unauthorised flag. He received instructions to
enforce the law, and the Club had to content itself with the legal
red ensign. In 1829, however, the Admiralty granted the yachts of the
club permission to wear "a St George's or white ensign," and the club
thereupon adopted the modern white ensign which its members still fly.

This was followed in 1831 by the grant of a blue ensign to the Royal
Northern Yacht Club; a white ensign with "the Arms of Ireland" in the
lower canton next the staff to the Royal Irish Yacht Club; and a formal
grant of the red ensign with "the Union (with the harp and crown on a
green field in the centre) in the corner" to the Royal Cork Yacht Club.

In 1832 a newly formed Irish club, the "Western Yacht Club," which had
assumed a green ensign, approached the Admiralty with a view to the
confirmation of this flag on the ground that "a white ensign has been
granted to the 'Royal Yacht Club,' a red ensign to the 'Royal Cork,'
a blue ensign to the 'Royal Northern,' and as the only unoccupied
national flag we have assumed the green ensign[336]." They were
informed "You may have as the flag for this Club either a red, white
or blue ensign, with such device within as you may point out, but that
their Lordships cannot sanction the introduction of a new colour to be
worn by British ships." They then chose a white St George's ensign with
"a crown in the centre surrounded with a wreath of shamrock."

There followed other grants of the white ensign, plain or with the St
George's cross in the fly and with or without special badges.

In 1842 the Royal Yacht Squadron, moved by frequent complaints of the
improper conduct in foreign waters of British yachts, erroneously
supposed, from the fact of their having a white ensign, to belong to
that club, asked that they might have "the sole permission to carry the
white ensign," at the same time suggesting that the other clubs should
have a blue one. The Admiralty acceded to this request and issued the
following circular letter:

  22 July 1842.

  Sir

  My Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty having, by their order
  of the 6th June 1829, granted permission to the Royal Yacht
  Squadron, as having been the first recognised club, and enjoying
  sundry privileges, to wear the White St George's ensign and other
  distinctions, that their vessels might be generally known, and
  particularly in Foreign ports, and much inconvenience having arisen
  in consequence of other Yacht Clubs having been allowed by this
  Board to wear somewhat similar colours, my Lords have cancelled the
  warrant enabling the ___________ to wear the white ensign, and have
  directed me to send you herewith a warrant, authorizing the vessels
  belonging to the club to wear the blue ensign of Her Majesty's
  fleet, with the distinguishing marks of the club, as heretofore
  worn on the white ensign; and as it is an ensign not allowed to be
  worn by merchant vessels, my Lords trust that it will be equally
  acceptable to the members of the club.

This letter was sent to the Royal Western, the Royal Thames, the Royal
Southampton, the Royal Eastern and the Gibraltar Yacht Clubs and to the
Wharncliffe Sailing Club, but from a misapprehension the Royal Western
Yacht Club of Ireland, once incorporated with its English namesake, was
overlooked. In 1853 this point was raised in Parliament, but no action
was then taken. In 1858, however, the exemption of the Irish Club was
again made a grievance by other clubs desiring the same privilege, and
the warrant of the Irish Club was then cancelled. The outcry raised led
to the papers connected with the grants of the white ensign being laid
before the House of Commons in 1859[337].

From that date the privilege of flying the white ensign has remained
the prerogative of the Royal Yacht Squadron, a privilege enhanced in
1864 by its becoming the distinctive ensign of the Royal Navy.

At the present day forty-four clubs have the privilege of flying the
blue ensign, either plain or "defaced" with some distinctive badge, and
eight are allowed to "deface" the red ensign with their special badge.
Other clubs may fly only the ordinary red ensign of the Mercantile
Marine.

FOOTNOTES:

[297] See Maspero, _Popular Stories of Ancient Egypt_, p. 231, and
Torr, _Ancient Ships_, Cambridge, 1895, p. 60.

[298] See p. 143.

[299] Stirling Maxwell, _Don John of Austria_, 1883, I, 387.

[300] Corbett, _Fighting Instructions_ 1530-1816 (N. R. S.), 1905, p.
27: "Even Howard's great fleet of 1588 had twice been in action with
the Armada before it was so much as organised into Squadrons."

[301] It was Henry who first organised navy administration by the
institution of the Navy Board in 1546.

[302] _S. P. D. Henry VIII_, CCV, fol. 163.

[303] Corbett, _Drake and the Tudor Navy_, II, 203.

[304] _Ibid._ II, 203.

[305] Rules in Sir John Hawkins his tyme, _S. P. D. Jas I_, CLVII, 67.

[306] Chardges in equipping & setting forth xvj^{en} of her Ma^{ts}
shippes and pinnaces to the seas. Pipe Off. Dec. Acct. 2232.

[307] See Arts 16 and 31 of the Instructions (_Naval Miscellany_ (N.
R. S.), vol. I). The greenish edge in the accompanying diagrams is
apparently the artist's shading.

[308] _S. P. D. Eliz._ CCLIX, 48, printed in Oppenheim's _Naval Tracts
of Sir Wm. Monson_ (N. R. S.), IV, 202 et seq.

[309] Oppenheim, _Monson Tracts_ (N. R. S.), IV, 209.

[310] _S. P. D. Chas I_, V, 31.

[311] See Plate IX, figs. 3-6, 8 and 9. In the earlier ensigns, towards
the end of Elizabeth's reign, the stripes were sometimes diagonal, and
different designs appear to have been used to distinguish individual
ships, much as the ensigns were used to distinguish regiments ashore.

[312] I.e. as signals.

[313] Corbett, _Fighting Instructions_ (N. R. S.), p. 83.

[314] "Observed the Gibraltar and Culloden firing at us, probably by
mistaking our St George's Ensign for the national flag, on which we cut
off the fly." (Master's Log, _vide_ Sturges Jackson, _Logs of the Great
Sea Fights_ (N. R. S.), p. 130.)

[315] Nicolas, _Despatches and Letters of Lord Nelson_, VII, p. 104.
In a footnote (the volume was published in 1846) Nicolas says: "It may
be hoped that the time is not distant when the anomalous distinctions
of Blue, White and Red Admirals will be abolished, so that St George's
banner will be the only flag borne by _all_ British Admirals."

[316] I.e. a narrow pendant with striped red, white and blue fly.

[317] Low, _History of the Indian Navy_, II, 201. A similar red pendant
has recently been approved as the flag of the Director of the Royal
Indian Marine.

[318] Order of the Governor in Council quoted by Low, _History of the
Indian Navy_, II, 570.

[319] This word first appears about 1650, and soon replaced the earlier
term.

[320] Marsden, _Law and Custom of the Sea_ (N. R. S.), II, 412.

[321] About two-thirds, instead of less than one-fourth.

[322] E.g. in 1636 the people of Calais stoned the Dover mail packet
which carried the Union flag at the stern, "rending the said Unite
coullers."

[323] See Plate V, fig. 7.

[324] See p. 70.

[325] B. M. _Add. MS._ 12206.

[326] Plate IX, fig. 8.

[327] See p. 68.

[328] See Plate IX, fig. 6. The number of stripes varied from nine to
thirteen, the odd numbers being red.

[329] Tanner, _Catalogue of the Pepysian MSS._ (N. R. S.), III, 325.

[330] Tanner, _Catalogue of the Pepysian MSS._ (N. R. S.), III, 334.

[331] There are, however, instances during the eighteenth century of
these ships flying a red or blue ensign.

[332] The Union replaced the St George's cross in the canton; and the
St George's cross appears to have been introduced into the fly, by
adding a vertical bar and thickening the middle stripe, about 1820.
(See Plate X, fig. 11.)

[333] First issued in a collected form in 1731.

[334] See _Lloyds Book of House Flags and Funnels_.

[335] _A General Collection of Treatys of Peace and Commerce_ (1732),
III, 282.

[336] _Parl. Paper_ 1859, III, Sess. 2.

[337] _Parl. Paper 1859_, III, Sess. 2. Further particulars of the
various devices adopted by the clubs will be found therein.

Chapter VI

_Flag Signals_

(i) EARLY SIGNALS

The few scattered references to signals found in early Greek literature
are so vague in their terms that they leave us in doubt whether the
ancient Greeks or their predecessors on the waters of the Eastern
Mediterranean made any use of flags for signalling purposes. It
seems probable that the earliest signals were given by raising the
naval standard which, as we have seen, found a place at the stern of
the Phoenician ships of war at least as early as 400 B.C., and that
the Greeks adopted this method from the Phoenicians, substituting a
cruciform standard for the Phoenician Crescent and Globe.

When Thucydides tells us that the "semeion" was raised in the Greek
fleet we may, in default of some better explanation, assume that the
officer in command seized the cruciform standard and elevated it at
arms' length. Such a signal might be rendered more conspicuous by
throwing a military cloak of bright colour over the arms of the cross
before raising it and, as already remarked, it seems highly probable
that the sign known as Phoinikis (φοινικὶς [Greek: phoinikis])
originated in this manner.

The earliest recorded instance of a signal at sea is probably
that mentioned by Herodotus[338] as having been made by Xerxes in
the year 480 B.C., when on quitting Therma in his expedition to
Greece he embarked in a Sidonian ship and "gave the signal (σημήιον
[Greek: sêmêion]) to the rest of the fleet to get under way." A more
characteristic--or more frequently mentioned--use of the "semeion" was
as a signal to commence action. The fleet fitted out by the Corinthians
against the Corcyreans in the year 433 B.C. met with a joint fleet of
Corcyrean and Athenian ships. Both the opposing fleets drew up in rank
and the "semeia" were then raised on both sides (τὰ σημεῖα ἑκατέροις
ἤρθη [Greek: ta sêmeia hekaterois êrthê]) as a signal for beginning
action[339].

Thucydides mentions two other instances[340] in which a fleet awaited
the signal before commencing to fight, but the only strictly tactical
signal which he has recorded was one made to the Peloponnesian fleet
in 429 B.C. The Peloponnesians had enticed the Athenian fleet into a
disadvantageous position by a feigned attack upon Naupactus. At a
given signal (ἀπὸ σημείον [Greek: apo sêmeion]) the Peloponnesians
suddenly turned their ships round and attacked the Athenians[341].

Towards the end of the Peloponnesian War (if we may suppose that
Polyaenus, writing in the second century A.D., was not guilty of
anachronism) the purple cloak signal (φοινικὶς [Greek: phoinikis])
comes into evidence. Conon, the Athenian commander, was in the year 406
B.C. off Mitylene, flying before Callicratidas the Spartan, who had
twice as many ships. Observing that the Lacedaemonian ships had, in the
ardour of pursuit, broken their ranks, Conon raised the "Phoinikis,"
which was the signal he had pre-arranged with the commanders of his
ships, and, turning together, the Athenian ships bore down on their
pursuers, then in disorder[342].

The Rhodians, in the second century B.C., made signals in the early
manner by raising the "signum" or military ensign. Livy relates that
Eudamus, when hard pressed in his action against the Syrian fleet under
Hannibal (191 B.C.) made use of such a signal to call his unengaged
ships to the rescue[343].

The earliest code of naval signals is that drawn up in the ninth
century A.D. by the Emperor Leo VI in his treatise on Tactics[344]. Leo
in the Introduction to his nineteenth chapter explains that he has been
unable to find anything on this subject among ancient Greek writers
except a few scattered references and that his knowledge is mainly
derived from the experience of his Generals.

In this nineteenth chapter, which deals with Naval Warfare (Περὶ
ναυμαχίας [Greek: Peri naumachias]) he says:

  39. Let there be some standard (σημεῖον [Greek: sêmeion]) in your
  ship, either a banner (βάνδον [Greek: bandon]) or a streamer
  (φλάμουλον [Greek: phlamoulon]) or something else in some
  conspicuous position, to the end that you may be able, thereby,
  to make known what requires to be done, and that the rest may set
  themselves to carry out the course of action decided on, whether it
  be to fight or to withdraw from fighting; to open out to surround
  the enemy, or to concentrate to the relief of an endangered portion
  of the fleet; to slow the rowing or increase speed; to make an
  ambush, or, emerging from ambush to attack the enemy; or, in
  general, whatever the signal that has its origin in your ship, that
  the others, by keeping an eye on her, may be able to execute it.

  40. For in such an emergency you will not be able to make use
  either of the voice or of the trumpet to communicate what is
  necessary, because of the uproar and the tumult, and the sound of
  the sea, and the crash of ship against ship, the noise of the oars,
  and above all the clamour of the combatants.

  41. Further, let the signal be given by setting the standard
  upright or by inclining it to the right or to the left, or by
  moving it twice to the right or left, or by shaking it, or lifting
  it up, or lowering it or altogether withdrawing it or altering its
  position, or by varying the appearance of the head by means of
  devices or colours as was the practice amongst the ancients; for
  in time of war they gave the signal for battle by raising what was
  called the Phoinikis (φοινικίδα [Greek: phoinikida]). There was
  also what was called the "cap" (μαμελαύκιον [Greek: mamelaukion])
  raised upon a pole, red in colour, and they had some other signals
  which were made known in like manner. Perhaps however it would be
  safer to make your signals by your own hand.

  42. And thus, O General, let the exercise of these signals be
  practised, so that all the officers in command of ships under you
  may have certain knowledge of all such signs; of the reason why
  each is made, and when, and how, and may not fail. So that, well
  familiarised with the signals, they may readily understand them in
  time of emergency and carry out the orders indicated.

In reading the above paragraphs one cannot fail to be impressed by the
profound grasp of the essential requirements of the subject exhibited
by the writer. Nothing like it appears again until modern times, and
the concluding words might well have been written by Kempenfelt and the
other reformers of the Signal System in the British navy at the end of
the eighteenth century.

After Leo we meet with nothing further on this subject until the
middle of the fourteenth century, and from what we then find it is
clear that the art had not only made no progress in the interval, but
on the contrary had decidedly deteriorated. Two sets of instructions
preserved in the _Black Book of the Admiralty_, to which Sir Travers
Twiss assigns a date between 1337 and 1351[345], contain each one flag
signal; one for calling a council, the other for notifying the presence
of the enemy:

  _A xviii._ Item est assavoir que a
  quel temps convenable il plest a
  ladmiral dassembler les capitaynes
  et les maistres de la flotte conseiller
  avecques eulx il prendra hault en
  mylieu du mast de sa nef une banniere
  de conseil parainsi que en
  toutes parties de la flotte, soit en
  ports ou dehors sur la mer, ce pourra
  estre congnu et apperceu &c et
  doncques tantost les capitaynes et
  maistres de nefs sont tenuz dassembler
  sans delay avec leurs bateaux
  bien eskippez de mariners
  pour nager et aler en la nef de ladmiral
  pour illecques oyr et faire ce
  que le conseil de ladmiral aura ordonne.

  _B vi._ Item en cas que aucune nef
  ou outre vessel de la flotte apperceyue
  aucun vessel ennemy sur la
  mer doncques il mettra une banere
  en hault par laquelle la nef de ladmiral
  et autres nefz de la flotte pourront
  avoir congnoissance qu'il a veu
  ung vessel ennemy ou plusieurs et
  ainsi apres ordonner le mieulx quilz
  sauront pour lencontrer, &c.

      xviii. Also it is to be noted that
      at whatever convenient time it
      pleases the admiral to call together
      the captains and masters of the fleet
      to take counsel with them he will
      carry high in the middle of the mast
      of his ship a banner of council so
      that in all parts of the fleet, whether
      in ports or out at sea, this may be
      recognised and perceived etc., and
      then immediately the captains and
      masters of ships are bound to assemble
      without delay with their
      boats well manned with seamen to
      row and go on board the ship of the
      admiral there to hear and do what
      the council of the admiral shall have
      ordained.

      Item in case any ship or other
      vessel of the fleet perceive any
      enemy vessel upon the sea then he
      shall put a banner aloft by which
      the ship of the admiral and other
      ships of the fleet may have knowledge
      that he has seen one or more
      enemy vessels and thus afterwards
      give the best orders they know of to
      encounter it.

The very primitive tactics in use at this period in northern waters
called for none but the most primitive signals. When at sea, the fleet
gathered each evening round the admiral to take his orders for the next
day, and if by any chance he wished to consult the captains or had
orders to communicate before that hour he took the banner, which was
normally planted on the aftercastle, and placed it halfway up the mast.
When the enemy was seen, the sighting ship displayed a banner in the
top, and thereupon all the ships met together to discuss what to do.
Nothing could be simpler; nothing, one would suppose, more inefficient
in time of emergency; certainly nothing could be farther from the
well-practised organisation inculcated by the Emperor Leo.

In the waters of the Mediterranean the tradition of a more scientific
method of warfare than simple _mêlée_ fighting had its natural
influence on the method of signalling. The orders issued by Amadeo
VI of Savoy in 1366 for the combined fleet of galleys provided by
Genoa, Venice and Marseilles and sailing under his command[346] show a
considerable advance upon those recorded in the _Black Book_. This may
be judged from the following excerpts which include all the articles
relating to flag signals.

  Ce sunt les chouses ordonnees
  pour larmee Monseigneur de Savoye
  sur le gouvernement daler sur la
  Mer.

  10. Item quand le dit seigneur
  voudra avoir conseil qui facet mettre
  son estendart aut et que toutes les
  gallees doivent venir vers le dit seigneur
  et oui ce quil voudra ordonner
  des autres gallees ce que le dit seigneur
  voudra ordonner.

  11. ... et que la ou ilz sont dessendu
  a terre que chascun tirat celle
  part soubz la banniere quil est.

  22. Item se ensi est que monseigneur
  vueille parler es gallees que
  monseigneur doye lever une banniere
  a ses armes a muy de la galee
  et tantost chascune des gallees se
  doit aprochier du dit seigneur sur
  la penne dicte.

  23. Item se ainsi est que monseigneur
  vueille parler a lung ou a
  deux ou au plus des gallees que
  quant monseigneur fera lever une
  bandiere a dues ou plus que le patron
  du quel seront les armes de la
  bannere ou dues bannieres que
  monseigneur fera lever se doivent
  tantost aprochier de la galee de
  monseigneur pour oir ce que leur
  voudra dire sur la penne dessus
  dicte.

  26. Item si ainsi fut que aucune
  des dictes galee veist aucune nef ou
  galee ou autre navile estrange que
  tantost deust lever une bandiere e
  baissier la bannere vers celle part ou
  il verra le naviles estrange sur la
  penne dicte et tienne tant la bandiere
  que la galee monseigneur li ait
  rendu enseigne et quil ait lever sa
  bannere.

  27. Item en cas avenoit que aucunes
  des dites galees eist aucun cas
  de necessite quil eust besoing dayde
  que elle doye fere enseigne dune
  banniere onmy de la galee et tantost
  les autres galees doivent aprochier
  celle par vers telle gallee pour ly
  aydier sur la dicte penne.

  28. Item que nulle des gallees ne
  doivent esguarder lune contre lautre
  devant que elles verront pointer une
  banniere sur la galee monseigneur
  de pope en proue et tantost chascune
  des galees sur la penne dicte regardera
  lune contre lautre.

  29. Item se ainsi estoit que une
  des galees fut esperdue des autres et
  ensi fut quelle se retornast avec les
  autres pour faire seigne de cognoissance
  de jour celle qui sera dessoubz
  vent ou celle doivent ou qui sera
  lancre doivent lever lestandart de
  son commun onmj lieu de sa galee
  et l'autre galee li doit rendre l'enseigne
  et lever lestandart de son
  commun en la proue chascune doit
  porter son estandart en lon lieu de
  la poupe adonques se feront cognostre
  qui sont amis et ce sur la
  penne dessus dict.

      These are the ordinances for the
      armed force of My Lord of Savoy
      concerning the regulation of going
      upon the sea.

      10. Item when the said Lord
      wishes to take counsel let him order
      his standard to be placed on high
      and then let all the galleys come towards
      the said Lord and hear what
      he shall wish to command of the
      other galleys what the said Lord
      shall wish to command.

      11. ... and there where they have
      landed let each one go to that place
      where is the banner under which he
      serves.

      22. Item, if it happens that my
      Lord wishes to speak to the galleys
      then my Lord shall raise a banner
      of his arms amidships of the galley,
      and immediately each one of the
      galleys shall approach the said Lord
      under the penalty named.

      23. Item if it happens that my
      Lord wishes to speak to one or to
      two or to more of the galleys, then,
      when my Lord shall cause to be
      raised one banner or two or more;
      the captains whose arms are those
      of the banner or two banners that
      my Lord shall cause to be raised
      shall immediately approach the galley
      of my Lord to hear what he
      wishes to say to them, under the
      penalty aforesaid.

      26. Item if it has happened that
      any one of the said galleys has seen
      any strange ship or galley or other
      vessel then immediately it shall
      raise a banner and lower the banner
      towards that part where it sees the
      strange vessels, under the penalty
      named, and hold the banner in that
      position until the galley of my Lord
      has returned the signal and has
      raised its banner.

      27. Item in case it shall happen
      that any of the said galleys has any
      occasion of necessity that it has need
      of aid, then it shall make a signal
      with a banner amidships of the galley
      and immediately the other galleys
      shall approach that place, towards
      such galley to aid it, under
      the penalty named.

      28. Item none of the galleys shall
      face one another before they shall
      see a banner on my Lord's galley
      pointed from the poop towards the
      prow, and immediately each of the
      galleys, under the penalty named,
      shall face one another[347].

      29. Item if it has happened that
      one of the galleys has lost the others
      and then returns to them to make a
      recognition signal by day, that one
      which shall be to leeward, either
      that one or the one which is at anchor,
      shall raise the standard of its
      Commune amidships of the galley
      and the other galley shall return the
      signal and raise the standard of its
      Commune in the prow. Each one
      shall (then) carry its standard to its
      place on the poop[348]. Then they will
      know which are friends, and this
      under the penalty aforesaid.

It will be seen that both these sets of instructions give prominence
to a signal for calling a Council and both, curiously enough, betray
the same confusion of thought. From the opening sentence it would be
supposed that the captains of the ships are assembled to advise the
Admiral in Council; from the closing sentence it would appear that they
are only called to hear the result of the council's deliberations. The
"etc." in the English Instructions and the repetition at the end of
Article 10 in the Savoy Instructions seem, however, to indicate that
the texts have not reached us in their original state. In the English
fleet the "Banner of Council" signal remained in use until the close
of the eighteenth century[349]. As a rule this signal was made with
the royal standard, though in 1369 a special gonfanon was provided and
in the reign of Henry V the "Trinity Royal" had a banner of council
containing the royal arms and the cross of St George[350]. When the
fleet was large, as in the Cadiz Expedition of 1596, the royal standard
was hoisted for the "selected" or inner council while the flag of St
George called the captain and the master of every ship to the flagship
for a general council.

But while in the English fleet the Banner of Council signal
underwent no development until the end of the sixteenth century, the
Mediterranean instructions of 1366 contain three signals of this
nature: one to call the council, another to call all the ships when
some order had to be communicated, and a third to call one or more
particular vessels. These, with the addition of one signal for calling
aid, one manoeuvring signal, and a recognition signal, to which were
added signals by sails and, at night, by lanterns, contain the germ of
a complete system of signalling.

It is not until the middle of the seventeenth century that we meet
with so advanced a system in the English navy. If an explanation of
this be sought it will be found in the fact that the rowing galley was
not suited to the waters of the English Channel and North Sea. If the
Mediterranean nations had, in the Middle Ages, a comparatively advanced
system of tactics and therefore--for the one inevitably follows the
other--a comparatively complete method of signalling, it was because
they had inherited the foundations of it with the galley from the
Romans and Greeks. The sailing-ship did not assert its superiority over
the older weapon until the early part of the sixteenth century, and it
was another century before the seamen who manned it could be persuaded
that the methods of tactics invented for the despised galley could be
of use when applied to vessels whose motive power was of another order.
It was the soldier-admirals, who were well acquainted with the value of
formal tactics on shore, who taught the English navy the lesson it was
so loath to learn.

The Instructions of 1366 just quoted may be taken as representative
of the fourteenth century. For the fifteenth century we have at least
two good examples; the orders for the Venetian navy drawn up by
Mocenigo[351] in the year 1420 and the orders for the navy of Castile
drawn up by Fadrique Henriquez[352] in 1430. It will be sufficient to
extract from the Venetian orders, which are the more interesting for
our immediate purpose, the various articles relating to flag signals.

  Questi sono i ordeni et commandamenti
  dati per il magnifico
  M. Piero Mozenigo del mar Zeneral
  Capitan--1420--

  5. Quinto che andando à uela nulla
  Galia ardisca passar el fogo à Misser
  lo capetanio saluo quella Galia che
  sarà de guarda, ma tuttauia debia
  attendere à non spartirse da lui sotto
  pena de lire diese à zaschedun che
  contrefarà, massime quando se uorà
  raggattar. Misser lo capetano farà
  metter la bandiera al mezzo. In
  quella uolta à chi piaserà ragattar
  habbi libertà di poterlo fare non
  si luntanando da lui mia dò al più,
  sotto la detta pena.

  13. Quando messer lo capitanio
  uorà domandar da parte el farà
  meter una bandiera in la popa, in
  quella fiada tutte le Galie se debia
  accostar à lui perche el possa saper
  el sò parer.

  14. Quando misser lo capitanio
  uorà che alguna de so Galie uegna
  da lui, el farà leuare in pope la bandiera
  di qual sopracomito el uorà
  che uegna da lui. In quella fiada
  quel tal sopracomito di chi sarà la
  bandiera uegni de presente à lui sotto
  quella pena che à lui piaserà.

      These are the ordinances and
      commands given by the eminent
      M^r Piero Mocenigo, Captain General
      at Sea--1420--

      5. Fifthly, when proceeding under
      sail, no galley shall attempt to
      pass the lantern of the Captain except
      the galley which shall be on
      guard, but should always take care
      not to part company from him under
      penalty of 10 lira for each one contravening,
      especially when they are
      racing. The Captain will place the
      flag amidships. In that case anyone
      wishing to race shall have liberty to
      do so; not however outdistancing
      him more than two miles at the
      most, under the aforesaid penalty.

      13. When the Captain desires to
      call the ships to him he will put a
      flag on the poop, in which case all
      the galleys ought to approach him
      in order to learn his intentions.

      14. When the Captain desires any
      particular galley to come to him, he
      will raise on the poop the flag of
      that commander whom he wishes to
      come to him. In that case the commander
      whose flag it is shall at once
      repair to him under such penalty as
      seems fit.

Signals for the galley on guard.

  Primà sel uederà fusta over fusto
  armado, debia leuar l' Insegna di
  misier San Marco et puoi tor quela
  uia tante fiade quanti sarà i nauilij
  che l' hauerà descouerto, et se queli
  sarano da uno in suso debia uegnir
  du miser lo capitanio, et farli sauer
  de queli fusti lui hauerà descouerto.
  Se la sara coca zoe naue lieue la soa
  bandiera dal ladi sinestro, se la sarà
  barca leua un penon dal ladi destro;
  fazando segni cum quela bandiera
  in la qual uia queli nauiglij i sarà
  descouerti et se miser lo capitanio
  uorà che la Galia de guarda uada ad
  algun de quali nauiglij i quali sarà
  descouerti el farà leuar una bandiera
  quara à pope al ladi destro à la
  uia del nauilio, obseruando i ordini
  infrascritti. Et se l' occorese che la
  Galia de guarda andando ad algun
  nauilio per l' ordene dato de sopra,
  et se miser lo capitanio uolese che
  quela tornase, non andase più auanti,
  se miser lo capetanio andarà à remi
  el farà fer uela de presente, et fara
  calar, et uezudo questo segno la
  Galia de guarda debia tornar subito
  à lui.

  Item comanda misier lo capetanio
  che sel fose descouerto più fusti e
  lui terminase andare a queli jn quela
  fiada el farà leuar el sò stendardo
  d'oro cum la so arma al fanò a pope,
  et de presente tute le Galie se debia
  redure appreso lui, é andare à se soe
  poste, e faza dar arme in couerta, et
  ordene le sue pauexade à proua segondo
  uxantia, et lo resto de pauixi
  sia per imbrazar et andar per couerta,
  et per suso le pertegete sia meso
  schiauine segondo usanza et à la
  prima trombeta zascadun se debia
  armar, à la segonda leuar l' Insegna
  de San Marco et rinfrescarti i corpi.
  A la terza quando serà leuado à meza
  Galia el standardo quadro con la
  Insegna del nostro signor Jesu
  Christo all' hora ognun uada arditamente
  et come buon' ordene che una
  galia non impaci l' altra à inuestir i
  diti navilij ouer fuste e non se desparta
  dalla battaia fina 1' ultima
  sconfita.

  Et perche molte fiade ocore che
  le Galie se separa una dall' altra, et
  squarase da misier lo capetanio, però
  lè de necesità dar ordene ò segno
  per el qual posa recognoserse dalle
  nostre Galie, una dall' altra si de
  zorno come de note come è dito qui
  de soto.

  Se alguna Galia se smarirà de
  miser lo capetanio per poterla recognoser,
  sel sarà de zorno miser lo
  capetanio farà un fumo à prua, et
  uezando questo segno la Galia che
  sarà squarada, responda per si fato
  segno et poi farà leuar una bandera
  a pope a cauo de banda destra, et per
  el simel lui debba responder, et poi
  lui farà leuare una bandiera quara à
  prua à ladi senestro, et per el simel
  quela Galia debia responder, et poi
  lui farà leuar una bandiera quara à
  prua et per el simel questa Galia debia
  responder, e farà i diti segni, miser
  lo capitanio farà leuar l' Insegna
  di Misier San Marco, et cosi debia
  responder la dita Galia e sia ben
  prouezuda à non se acostar, sel nò
  cognosese bene i deti segni.

  Item zonzandò m^r lo cap^o in algun
  liogo...non uoiando che algun sopracomito
  faci butar i sò copani in acqua
  fara butar el suo e leuerà la soa
  bandera de uento, à cao de banda.
  E in questo caso algun no dieba butar
  lo suo, fia la deta bandiera sarà
  alzada, mà mouesta sara quela cadaun
  posi butar soto quela pena à
  lui parerà.

  Item quando m^r lo capitanio uorà,
  che tuti i soracomiti uegna à lui, el
  farà meter la so bandiera da uento in
  pope à la scaza inuerso prua, alora
  debia uegnir da lui, perche altrimenti
  bisognaraue mandar per cadaun.

      First, if he shall see a light galley
      or armed galley, he ought to raise
      the Ensign of Saint Mark and then
      lower it as many times as there may
      be ships which he has discovered,
      and if there are more he should go
      to the Captain and acquaint him
      how many galleys he shall have discovered.
      If that be a boat or ship he
      shall raise his flag on the left side,
      if a bark, a pennant on the right
      side, making signals with this flag
      in the direction in which these ships
      are discovered, and if the Captain
      wishes the Guard-galley to go to
      any of these ships which shall be
      discovered, he will raise a square
      flag on the right side of the poop
      towards that ship, in conformity
      with the regulations given below.
      And if it shall come to pass that the
      guard-galley on going to any ship
      under the above order and the Captain
      should wish her to turn back
      and not to advance further, if the
      Captain shall proceed under oars, he
      shall order sail to be taken in at
      once and shall strike sail, then
      having seen this signal the guard-galley
      ought to turn at once to him.

      Likewise the Captain commands
      in case more ships are discovered
      and he is determined to go to them;
      in this case he shall order his own
      standard to be raised, the gold
      standard with his arms, at the lanthorn
      on the poop, and immediately
      all the galleys ought to repair close
      to him, and proceed each to her own
      post, and order the arms on deck
      and order their pavisades to the
      prow according to custom, the rest
      of the shields to go round the deck,
      and on the supports of the awning
      the galley slaves' clothes are to be
      put as is customary, and at the first
      trumpet each man is to arm himself;
      at the second to raise the ensign
      of Saint Mark and to take refreshments
      for their bodies. At the
      third, when the square standard
      with the ensign of Our Lord Jesus
      Christ shall be raised amidships
      each ship shall proceed boldly and
      in good order, so that one galley
      may not hinder another, to board or
      come up with the said ships or galleys
      and not to leave the battle until
      they are finally routed.

      And as it often happens that the
      galleys are separated one from the
      other and are dispersed from the
      Captain, therefore he must necessarily
      give an order or signal of
      recognition by which they may be
      recognised by our ships one from
      the other by day as well as by night,
      as is mentioned below.

      If any Galley shall stray from the
      Captain, in order to recognise it, if
      by day, the Captain makes smoke
      on the prow and seeing that signal
      the galley which had separated shall
      answer by the same signal, and then
      the Captain shall order a flag to be
      raised on the forward end of the
      poop on the right side; and with the
      same signal he is to answer and the
      Captain shall order to raise a square
      flag on the left side of the prow, and
      likewise that galley is to answer and
      make the aforesaid signal. The Captain
      will raise the Ensign of St Mark
      and this the galley ought to answer,
      and be very attentive not to go
      alongside if it does not well recognise
      the above signals.

      Item the Captain, cruising in any
      place, ... not wishing any commander
      to lower his boat into the water, will
      launch his own boat and raise his
      flag on the windward side of the
      poop forward, and in this case no
      one shall lower his boat as long as
      the said flag is hoisted, and if any
      does so it shall be under the penalty
      which he thinks fit.

      Item if the Captain wishes all the
      commanders to come to him, he will
      put his flag to windward, on the
      poop near the ladder, inclined towards
      the prow, and then they must
      go to him because otherwise he
      would have to send for them.

The Venetian orders contain no provision for calling a Council, but
they include two flag signals for calling up the galleys to take
orders. Possibly the Venetians, anticipating Drake, did not assent
to the scriptural dictum that in the multitude of councillors is
wisdom. In the Castilian Instructions there is not only provision for
calling a council by day, by hoisting the royal pendant, but also for
calling an informal council at night. In daytime the captain and a
boatswain[353] from each galley had to come in a boat on board the
Admiral, but at night each galley ranged up with the Admiral in turn,
spoke with him, and then fell off again. Another signal not found
in the Venetian Instructions is that for calling assistance; in the
Castilian Instructions this is to be done by raising the royal pendant.
There are two signals for discovery of a fleet in those instructions;
if the fleet was recognised as an enemy the sighting galley hoisted
the royal pendant and rushed off to tell the Admiral all about it,
without attempting to denote by signal the number of ships, but if it
was merely a strange fleet the sighting galley contented itself with
hoisting a flag to the masthead and raising and lowering it as many
times as there were ships. The first galley to sight land raised a
flag to the masthead, kept it there a short time, and then lowered
it. The recognition signal differs from that provided in the Venetian
orders, but it contains the same serious defect found in most of the
early recognition signals--the two ships simply copy one another. In
the Savoy Instructions of 1366 it will be seen that there is a slight
variation in the signals made by the two galleys, sufficient to betray
any stranger not acquainted with the difference. One would have thought
that the necessity for some such device would have been apparent to any
seaman, for the use of an enemy's colours was a well-known artifice and
nothing could be simpler than to copy exactly the signals of another
ship.

For the early sixteenth century we have two important sets of signal
instructions. One of these, the "Ordonnances et signes pour nauiguer
jour et nuyt en une armée royale[354]," drawn up by Antoine de Conflans
about the year 1515 for use in a fleet composed of sailing ships and
galleys, is worth translation in full:

  Ordinances and Signals for navigating by day and by night in a navy
  royal, if his most Christian Majesty, whom God preserve, or other
  prince of the realm, should set out to the conquest of the Holy
  Sepulchre or other lands of the enemies of the Holy Catholic Faith,
  and the Ordinances and Chapters written below, which are for the
  recognition by day and by night of those who are of the party and
  of the company of the said most Christian king or prince; Also if
  other ships, either strangers or enemies, whether sailing ships,
  galleys, foists or other vessels, should be found among the said
  navy by day or night, they may be easily recognised by these said
  ordinances, which must be well kept and observed by the whole fleet
  and company of the said navy.

  And First:

  The King's ship, or that of his admiral and lieutenant if the said
  lord is not himself present, shall ordinarily wear the banner in
  the top called the "gabye" in the Levant; and this shall be the
  mark by which the royal or admiral ship shall be recognised by day;
  and by night, because the aforesaid banner can not be seen, the
  said ship shall carry on its poop a lighted lantern, such as is
  called a "fanal" in the Levant waters, which shall burn all night,
  so that the whole fleet can see it; and by this means the royal or
  admiral ship shall be recognised by all the fleet.

  Item, all the ships of the fleet, whether galleys or other vessels,
  shall come each morning to salute the King's or admiral's ship and
  to ascertain the watchword (mot du guet), and in the evening to
  learn the night-cry (cry de la nuyt); and in the evening they shall
  come and salute the said lord and his ship, and enquire what route
  and course he intends to follow, in order that if, through tempest
  or for other reasons, any vessel should lose itself by night, it
  will know what route to follow; and none of the said ships or
  galleys, except the king's or admiral's, shall carry a banner in
  the top, nor any lantern or beacon, except the Captain General of
  the galleys, who usually may carry the banner at the stern, and by
  night a stern lantern. If by chance bad weather should occur (which
  God forbid) and it is feared that the vessels may become separated
  from one another, the king will carry two banners by day and two
  lanterns by night, and each of his fleet one; and in the same way
  the Captain of the galleys and his fleet one other.

  Item, no ship shall fail to change its course and go about when
  the said lord does so, and generally, each one shall perform the
  manoeuvre which the said lord shall perform.

  Item, if the said lord wishes to speak with other ships he will put
  a banner at the stern, and each ship shall be bound to approach the
  said lord. And if the said lord wishes to speak with the galleys
  only he will put the banner in the admiral's stern gallery.

  Item, let each one carry as much sail as seems good to him, and
  proceed at the same speed as the said lord and no more, so that he
  does not pass his said ship, under the penalty afore-mentioned or
  of being punished at his discretion. And also let each one take
  care to keep near the said ship.

  Item, if any of the said ships or galleys see one or more sail, the
  ships shall show, as many times as they see sails, a banner in the
  top on that side on which they see the said sails, and the galleys
  shall show it on the mast-head[355]. Each one of them, whether ship
  or galley, shall keep it there until the captain[356] has replied
  with a similar signal.

  Item, let no one, on pain of death, whether commanding a ship,
  galley or brigantine, chase any ship of any sort or condition
  without leave and licence of the said lord.

  Item, let no vessel salute another whilst it is within sight of
  the said lord, on pain of corporal punishment, except the galleys,
  which shall salute the Captain as a mark of respect.

  Item, if by day any of the said ships or galleys shall have
  suffered any damage (which God forbid) that one to which the
  accident has happened shall place in the top a pendant so as to
  be seen by the said lord. It shall fire one gun and shall keep
  the said banner flying until the other vessels have come to its
  assistance. In the case of a galley it shall fly the said banner
  at the masthead and shall fire one gun as already said, and each
  of the said ships shall approach that to which the accident has
  happened in order to render aid.

  Item, if by chance the said ships have parted company, which God
  forbid, and meet again by day, the one to windward shall lower and
  raise the topsail once and fire one gun; and the one to leeward
  shall lower and raise the said topsail once and fire two guns. In
  the case of the galleys, the one to leeward[357] shall twice draw
  up to the mast the lower end of the lateen yard and shall fire one
  gun; and the one to leeward shall peak the lateen yard (by drawing
  the upper end down to the corsia) and fire two guns, keeping the
  said yard arm to the corsia[358].

  Item, if any of the said ships is in need of aid from the galleys
  it shall fire one gun and hoist a banner on the poop twice and the
  Captain of the said galleys shall then, if possible, go or send to
  it.

  Item. [If any of] the said ships or galleys sights land [the ship]
  shall hoist a banner at the lower yard arm and the galley at the
  fore or at the after end of the lateen yard slung horizontally[359]
  on the side on which land is seen, and shall keep it out until the
  said lord has answered.

  Item, if the said lord wishes the said ships to lower their boats
  he will place two banners at the poop and fire one gun, and
  immediately the said ships shall launch their boats and put out
  towards the said lord or where he shall wish them to go.

  Item, if the said lord, being at anchor, wishes to make sail,
  he will place a banner at the edge of the top in addition to
  the ordinary banner, and will fire one gun, and everybody must
  thereupon return on board to hoist sail likewise.

  Item, if by day one or several sail are sighted, and the said lord
  wishes the galleys to chase and speak with them, he will place a
  banner at each yard-arm and fire two guns.

  Item, if the said lord wishes the whole fleet to chase he will
  place two banners at the said yard-arms, and also two more on the
  edge of the top in addition to the ordinary one, and he will fire
  four guns, and every ship shall be bound to carry the requisite
  number of sails.

  Item, if the said lord and his fleet encounter enemy fleets where
  they must fight, they shall show all the ensigns and banners they
  have, so that each one may do his duty.

  These articles will be changed every time that a fleet is set out,
  however the substance of them remains the same.

  Here follow the arrangements and chapters drawn up for night-time.

  And first

  If the said lord is at sea, and he wishes to make sail, he will
  show two lanterns and will fire one gun, and he will keep the said
  lanterns showing until the others have replied to him with two
  other lanterns, but without firing guns; and each one shall be
  bound to get under way and make sail like him.

  Item, if, being under sail, the said lord wishes to speak with the
  other ships, he will show two lanterns twice and twice conceal
  them; and the last time he will keep them showing until the others
  have replied by a similar signal, and each one shall be bound to go
  to the said lord; and if he wishes to speak with the galleys only,
  he will show a single lantern over the stern light, and if the
  brigantine is to come he will show two.

  Item, if any of the said ships or galleys sight one or several
  sails it shall show a single lantern as many times as it sees
  sails, and shall betake itself to the said lord as soon as it can,
  and all the others shall do in like manner.

  Item, if the said lord wishes to take off a bonnet, he will show
  three lanterns, one after the other, until the others have replied
  with three other lanterns, and each one shall be bound to do the
  same.

  Item, if the said lord wishes to set a bonnet and crowd on sail
  he will show three lanterns one above the other and keep them out
  until the others have answered with a similar signal, and each
  shall be bound to crowd on sail to follow the said lord.

  Item, if the said lord wishes to chase by night, he will show three
  lanterns in a row three times, and will fire three guns, and will
  keep the said lanterns showing until the others have replied by
  similar lanterns. And to enable them to recognise one another each
  ship shall carry four lanterns at the poop, and the said lord will
  carry three on each side of his stern light.

  Item, if the said lord wishes to take in sail he will show three
  lanterns one above the other three times, and will fire one gun,
  and the third time he will keep the said lanterns showing until the
  others have replied by similar lanterns without firing guns.

  Item, if the said lord wishes to come into port, he will carry two
  stern lights, one above the other, and will fire one gun, and each
  of the said ships shall be bound to follow him to the said port;
  and when they shall have followed him and anchored, the first ones
  must keep a lantern at the stern until they have all arrived in
  the said port, in order that they may not hinder one another; and
  when all the said ships have arrived they shall take in the said
  lanterns, and the stern light of the said lord alone will remain
  burning.

  Item, if by night any accident shall occur to any one of the said
  ships (which God forbid) it shall show four lanterns at the stern
  and four at the bows, as it may be difficult to see all the said
  lanterns; it shall also fire two guns until the other ships shall
  come to its aid, whereupon the said ships shall be bound to come to
  its succour.

  Item, if one of the said ships should have need of galleys, it
  shall fire one gun and keep a lantern at the poop until the said
  galleys have arrived, and the Captain of the said galleys shall be
  bound to go or send to it if it is possible.

  Item, if it should happen that the ships part company by any chance
  (which God forbid) and they find their companions by night, the one
  to windward shall show six lanterns three by three and shall fire
  two guns.

  Item, the one to leeward shall show four lanterns one above the
  other and fire four guns; and the watchword for the night shall be
  cried; and thus each one will be easily recognised without having
  to come right up with one another; and the said lord wills and
  commands that when the fleet thus part company and find one another
  by night, and some distance off find another ship not belonging
  to their company, none shall dare to fire at one another without
  first having made the above signals, as well by day as by night;
  and moreover, the said lord wills and commands that they shall, in
  addition, speak with one another.

  The watchword or cry for the night, and all the other signals, as
  well for day as for night, are changed and are at the discretion
  and will of the lord and chief of the said fleet, with the council
  of master mariners and pilots, and with the aforesaid council and
  the assistance of this present collection, they can make use of as
  much as seems good to them.

The instructions just quoted are plainly an ideal set; they represent
the best experience of the age, but there is no indication that they
were ever actually employed at sea.

The other important set of instructions of the early sixteenth century
is by no means so full as that of Conflans, but it was actually used at
sea, and reappears in various guises until the middle of the century.
It seems to have been first drawn up by Philippe de Cleves, to have
been used by the Emperor Charles V in his voyage from Flanders to Spain
in 1517, and finally to have been incorporated, with slight alterations
by Jehan Bytharne, Gunner in Ordinary to the King of France, in his
_Livre de Guerre tant par mer que par terre_[360] written in 1543. The
flag signals, which Bytharne says he had himself seen made at sea,
present no improvement on those already cited, and they may, as given
by Bytharne, be summarised as follows:

  To assemble the Captains for
  Council or to speak to them. The
  Captains to bring their best pilot
  and most experienced officer.

          A square banner tied in a weft[361]
          in the main mizen.

  On sighting strange ships.

          A square banner tied in a weft[362]
          halfway up the shrouds on the side
          on which the ships are seen.

  If the strange ships are numerous,
  then

          Two flags as above, one over the
          other.

  If the Admiral, on receiving the
  above signal from one of the scouting
  ships, desires that they should
  go forward and reconnoitre.

          A banner on the fore mast inclined
          forward.

  All ships to chase.

          A square banner between the
          main top and the small banner
          flown at the main topmasthead.

  Sighting land.

          A square banner in the main top
          inclined on the side on which land
          is seen.

  Ship in danger.

          Man in main top to swing banner
          round and round. Three guns in
          quick succession.

If we now turn to the contemporary instructions of the English navy
as given by Audley in his _Orders to be used in the King's Majesties
Navy by the Sea_ (c. 1530)[363], we are at once struck by the primitive
nature of the signals contained in them. They are as follows:

  Whensoever, and at all tymes the Admyrall doth shote of a pece
  of Ordinance, and set up his Banner of Councell on Starrborde
  bottocke[364] of his Shippe, everie shipps capten shall with spede
  go aborde the Admyrall to know his will.

  When and at all tymes the Admyrall will anker or disanker, he
  must shote a pece, that thereby the rest may know to do the same;
  and that no Shippe ride in an others walke, for in that is greate
  danger.

  If they saile by night the Admirall must beare a greate light
  in the stearne of his Shippe, and if his fleete be greate, the
  Admirall must carie ij lights; and the Vice Admirall one, and the
  said Admirall must make such Saile over night that all his fleet
  may kepe about him; perchanse ells in the morning a greate parte of
  his flete may be out of his sight, for everie Shippe saileth not
  alike.

  If it chance any Shippe in the night fall in leake, or breake his
  maste, he may shote a pece of Ordinance, or ij to warne the flete
  he hath harme and in perall, to the entent he may have helpe, and
  the rest to tarie.

  The Admyrall ought to have a swifte pynnes abord alwaies abrod to
  askrie so farre of that he may se the flete out of his toppe, and
  if he seeth any enemyes or any other sailes, geve knowlege to the
  Admyrall if they be any enemyes let him shote ij or iij peces of;
  in the meanetyme the Flete may put them self in order and councel
  before hand. Allwaies foreseing the pynnesse prease not so nighe
  the enemve that he might be apprehended, for by that the secrets
  might be knowne to the enemye, and evrie night he to cum into the
  flete agayne.

  If in the night there chanseth any enemyes unlooked for to fall
  into the flete, he that first doth askrie the same shall shote of
  ij peces, and geve a token of ij fyers and by that token shal be
  understande that they be enemyes that be in the Flete. Yf they do
  flee, let everie man make after, and that Shippe that is nighest
  beare a light in his Stearnye that the rest may know whether[365]
  the enemye goeth, for otherwise they may lose them: and if he that
  giveth the chace, se not the fleete follow, let him shoote of a
  pece, that they may follow by his shotte, in case they should not
  see his light.

  The Admyrall ought to have this order before he joyne battell
  w^{th} the enemye that all his shipps shall beare a flagge in their
  missentoppe and himself one in the foremaste beside the Mayne mast,
  that everie man may know his owne flete by that token....

Scanty and insufficient as are these signals, and they leave everything
to "councel" beforehand, there was no marked improvement on them until
the days of the Commonwealth and the First Dutch War. The Instructions
drawn up by Wynter[366] in the last year of Queen Mary's reign contain
only one flag signal--the banner of council--one night signal for
change of course, which is of interest as showing that the primitive
cresset was, in 1558, still in use in the English fleet:

  Item, in the night we do change our Course then the Admiral will
  bear a light in his Cresset for the space of one hour, whereby
  every Man may know what he ought to do; And all the night after
  none, and then he will show out a Lanthorn with a Candle light in
  the Mizon Shrowds.

one elementary recognition signal:

  Item, if any be separated as before said, and that they descry by
  fortune one another, to the end they may be assured that they are
  of one Company the one shall strike his foresail, and a Yaw[367],
  and to howse it and strike it in that sort, until he do think that
  the same be seen unto the other, and then shall the other answer
  him by striking of his foresail, and shooting of one good piece, so
  that by the signs they shall be certain the one of the other.

and one signal for use in fog, that seems as inefficient as the others:

  Item, if there do happen any great Mists, in such sort, that one
  cannot discern another, then according to the weather, or place
  we be in, we must order ourselves, that is to wit, if there be so
  room. The Admiral will strike his Sail, and shoot one piece then,
  whereby every Man may be warned to do the same, and if the Admiral
  will anchor, then he will shoot off two pieces, one after another,
  and strike the Sail incontinent upon the same, but if it so fortune
  that he can neither drive nor ride at Anchor, then every man mark
  well at the beginning of the mist what course the Admiral keepeth,
  and to do the same. And the said Admiral will within every Glass
  running shoot one piece for acknowledge, and because one may be the
  better warned of another, ye shall make noise with trumpets, drums,
  or knocking.

If any tactical instructions were issued to the fleet that engaged
the Spanish Armada they have not been preserved to us, but there is
no reason to suppose that they were--or would have been--any less
rudimentary than those we have just considered. They may be taken to be
represented by the "Rules in Sir John Hawkins his tyme" preserved among
the State Papers of James I[368]:

  5. Item that the fleetest pynassis doe waight still on the Admirall
  and be at hand y^t he maye upon all occasions send them from shipp
  to shipp as hee shall see Cause.

  12. Item that upon the settinge up of a flagge in the quarter of
  y^e Admiralls shipp every shipp come and speak w^h the Admirall.

  13. Item that when the Admirall shall set up his flag of Counsell
  in the shrowdes That then every Captayne shall repaire to knowe his
  pleasure.

  14. Item when the Admirall shall cause a pece of ordinance to be
  shot of and a flagge of Counsell to be put out upon the mayne
  yard then shall all the other shipp reporte to the Admirall and
  the Captaynes w^h their M^r shall come in their boats aboard the
  Admirall.

  19. Item If it fortune a strange shipp to fall into the fleet
  by night, that you dowbt them, you shall call unto them for the
  watchword. And if he or they have not the same then you shall hange
  up two lights one above the other on the same side of the shipp w^h
  you shall perceave them of, so as the rest of y^e shipp maye have
  warninge accordingly.

There is no provision in these "Rules" for any communication by
signalling. All orders are given either by word of mouth or by sending
a message by a pinnace.

The Instructions[369] for the Cadiz Expedition of 1596, elaborate as
they are in certain directions, provide few signals. There was, of
course, the "Flag of Council," half-mast high against the mizen-mast:
the royal standard for the "selected" council, and the St George for
all captains and masters. Each squadronal admiral might call the
captains and masters of his own squadron to his flagship for orders by
removing the white pendant (with which all ships were provided) from
his mizen yard and hanging it in the main yard "two men's height." If a
strange sail was sighted the nearest ship might chase it, but not more
than one was to do so unless the admiral of the squadron signalled for
two or three to go, by hanging out two or three flags (presumably any
flags that were handy) one over the other. If the squadronal admiral
himself bore up and chased, all might follow unless the Generals
(Essex or Howard) hung out the flag of council, when all were to give
over and keep their course. As a recognition signal, a ship that had
lost company was to strike and hoist the maintopsail twice, or in bad
weather the main mizen twice or as often as they liked.

The Instructions issued on various occasions during the next fifty
years present few points that concern us. They never contain more than
two or three signals, and those only of the type with which we are
already sufficiently familiar. It may, however, be of interest to note
the various forms taken by the "Flag of Council." In the Orders drawn
up by Raleigh in 1617 for his expedition to Guiana the form of this
flag is not indicated, apparently any flag might serve the purpose:

  When the Admirall shall hang out a flagg in the main shrowdes, you
  shall knowe it to be a flagg of counsell; then come aboard him[370].

For the voyage of Prince Charles to Spain in 1623 and for the Cadiz
Expedition of 1625 the arrangement was the same as in 1596--the royal
standard for the Council of War, or select council of the principal
officers, and the St George for a general council of all captains and
masters--but in August, 1628, Buckingham substituted the Union, or,
as he called it, the "Brittish," flag for the St George in calling
the general council. In September of that year, however, the Earl
of Lindsey was using the Union flag for the Council of War and the
St George for the council of Captains and Masters. The orders drawn
up by Pennington in 1631 and in 1639 present a fresh variation, the
separation of the Captains from the Masters:

  44. Whensoever you shall see the Brittish flagg spred in my myson
  shrowds, then all the Captains are to come aboard of me. If the Red
  Antient then both the Captains and Masters.

In 1635 Lindsey used the Union flag for the General Council, or Council
of War, but the signal for captains and masters was altered to the red
ensign, and this form was adopted by the Earl of Northumberland in 1636.

Before we proceed to consider the signals of the First Dutch War, which
heralded a new era, it will be desirable to refer to those contained in
the _Dialogues_ of Nathaniel Boteler. Boteler had served as captain in
the Cadiz Expedition of 1625 and in the Rochelle Expedition of 1627,
and seems to have written the first draft of the _Dialogues_ shortly
after the latter event. Judging from the manuscripts that remain, he
re-wrote parts of them at various times until 1634, but his remarks
on signals remain practically unaltered[371], and may be taken to
represent the ideal of English seamanship of that period. On comparing
them with Conflans' suggested instructions of 1515 it will be seen that
the English ideal was by no means a high one, yet it was not surpassed
until the Commonwealth Instructions were issued in 1654.

Speaking in guise of a seaman "Captain," who is instructing a court
"Admiral" in his duties, Boteler says:

  In the first place therfore, when the Generall entends upon such a
  daye to make out to Sea with his whole Fleete; a fitt Signall to
  expresse as much to every perticuler shypp may be, by causeinge his
  Topp-sayles to lie loose upon the Capps, very early that morneinge;
  and if itt prove to be hazie and darcke weather, soe that the
  fleete being great, or lieing scattered att an Anchor, may not well
  perceive it, Hee may then, about two or three houres before he
  begin to waye his Anchors cause fire to be given to a single Piece
  of Ordinance.

  Secondly, if a fleete being att sea, and occasions require a
  generall convention of the Captaines and Masters aborde the
  Admiralls shypp: A fitt signall to lett them know itt may be, to
  hang out a yellow flagge in the uppermost part of the Admiralls
  Maine Shrowdes: But if ther be entended only the comeinge aborde of
  the Counsell of Warre, then may ther be a blewe flagge hung out in
  the same place; for I conceive that this part is more proper then
  is the Missen Shrowdes, (though that be the most received place for
  this purpose) in regard that itt is more perceptable and may better
  be discovered.

  Thirdly, if the Generall shall finde cause, to cast about in the
  night (for if by daye, this asketh noe signall) besides the Light
  or Lanthorne, which every Admirall is to carry in the Poope, the
  most evidenceinge signe that I can thincke of may be, to put
  another light in the Maine-topp: And if Hee entend to lie a-Hull,
  to shewe two lights in the same place: If a-Trie, three lights, the
  which lights are soe to be carried untill itt be founde that the
  whole Fleete hathe taken notice of itt, and answere itt accordingly.

  Fourthly, If any Squadron or parte of the fleete, by beinge too
  forwards a-heade, shall be required to shorten sayle, and to attend
  the comeinge up of the Admirall; a Signe appropriated may be, to
  heave or wave an Ensigne abroade in the Admiralls Fore-topp, and to
  give fire to a great piece withall; And on the contrary, whensoever
  any of them keepe too farre a-sterne, to wave out the same flagge
  in the Missen-topp.

  Fifthly, If upon the discoverye of any straunge fleete or Shyp,
  the Generall find itt fitt to have any of the Pinnaces, and best
  saylers of his fleete, to stand in with them, and to require them
  to come to speake with him; an apte signe may be to give fire to
  a piece of Ordinance or two out of his own chase, and withall to
  shewe a flagge in his Bolt sprites Topp.

  Sixthly, Whensoever a Fleete shall meet with the Enemies fleete,
  and after due consultation aborde the Admirall, itt shall be found
  fitt to fight, the Admirall may take in his ordinary Ensigne from
  the poope of the shyp and hang out another all redd, which is
  tearmed the bloudy Colors; that soe all the fleete may dispose
  and order themselves to fall on upon the Enemie in such forme and
  fashion as they are before hand to be instructed in.

  And thes are such necessary Causes, to require any signalls to be
  expressed by the Generall himselfe, out of his perticuler Shypp:
  It followes, to intimate in some other perticulers, wherin every
  perticuler shypp of the fleete is to doe the like; hereby as well
  to give notice to the Generall himselfe or any of the rest.

  _Admiral._ And what are thes?

  _Captain._ If any Shyp of a fleete shall discover any straunge
  fleete, or any Squadron of straunge Shypps, or any single Shyp
  whatsoever; itt being necessary that not only the Generall, but the
  whole Armadoe, should with all expedition, receive advertisement
  hereof. A convenient signall to this purpose may be, to shewe
  abroade some flagge in that part of that Shyp which pointeth most
  upon the discovered Straunger; and if it be a fleete that is soe
  discovered, then to hang out two flagges in the same manner,
  and withall to give to a great Gunne or two, that so notice may
  generally be taken of what is done.

  Likewise, whensoever a fleete comeinge out of the Sea, expecteth
  a Landfall: the first Shyp of them that maketh Land is to give
  present notice therof to all the rest of the fleete; and this she
  is to doe, if itt be by daye, by shewinge her Colors abroade,
  though itt be (for the time) in the Maine-topp itt selfe,
  inclineinge and bendinge them towards that part whence Land is
  discovered; and if this discovery happen in the night, she is
  to shoote of two pieces of Ordinance and withall shewe a light
  abroade; and instantly cast about and stand off, that the residue
  of the fleete may take notice and beware.

  If any Shyp of a fleete shall find her selfe in daunger of
  founderinge in the Sea, by springeinge of a leake, or any the
  like mischaunce; if this bee by daye shee maye shoote off three
  pieces of Ordinance, and withall cause a youncker to goe upp to the
  Maine-topp and shewe a waft: And if this happen in the night time;
  then to continue this shooteinge ever and anon of a single piece,
  and withall to shewe a light, that notice may be taken by the Gunne
  and her selfe found out by the light, and so relieved. And because
  ther may be many occasions wherby a fleete may be far dispersed,
  and yet afterwards gett togither againe, and that itt is fitt, that
  upon the first ken one of another, they may be knowne one unto
  another and soe noe mistakeinges ensue, an apt Signall to this
  purpose, may be by the puttinge out and takeinge in of a flagge soe
  many times one after another as shall formerly be agreed upon, or
  by the soe often strikeinge of a Topp-sayle or the like; the which
  they are to answer one unto another.

Boteler's suggestion of yellow and blue flags as signals for calling a
Council is of especial interest as being the earliest proposal to use
special flags for making signals. Until the year 1654, signals--at any
rate in English fleets--were with two exceptions always made with the
flags already in use for other purposes, that is, with the Flags of
Command or Colours of Distinction, whose primary uses we have already
discussed. These two exceptions are the red flag of war and the white
flag of peace.

The red flag, or "bloody colours" as it was often called, and the white
flag are not mentioned in any of the early instructions. They were, in
fact, international signals and formed part of the traditional "Custom
of the Sea" which was never completely codified and, except so far as
it was gathered into such collections as the Rooles d'Oléron and the
Consolado del Mar, can now only be recovered by the laborious process
of collecting precedents.

The red flag, could we completely trace its descent, would no doubt
be found to have sprung from the "scarlet cloak" which the ancient
Greek navy seems to have borrowed from the Phoenicians, but we first
meet with it, so far as English ships are concerned, in the document
of _circa_ 1299 referred to above[372] in which is set forth the
injuries inflicted by the Normans on the shipping of England, Ireland
and Gascony (then subject to the English crown). In April a fleet of
English, Irish and Bayonne merchantmen set out from Portsmouth bound
for Bordeaux. Off St Mathieu, on the coast of Brittany, they anchored.
According to their own story, they were becalmed. News of their
presence reached a fleet of 290 ships of Normandy, then loading wine
in the river Charente. Leaving half their cargoes, in order that their
sailing might not be impeded, the Normans fitted up fore and after
castles and fighting tops at the mastheads and hoisted streamers of
red sendal two yards broad and thirty yards long, called "baucans," as
a sign that no quarter would be given[373]. A southerly wind having
now sprung up the Normans fell upon the other fleet, only to receive
a thorough beating. In refusing to give up the spoils taken on this
occasion, the allies explained to Edward I that when the "baucan"
had been raised in an engagement of this kind no one could be held
responsible for life or property taken[374].

Although the red flag was a recognised signal for combat among all
European nations, it was not until the year 1647 that it was formally
included in the English "Instructions." It remained in them until the
year 1799.

In the West Indies, so Cleirac tells us, the Spanish flag of combat was
blue: in European waters it was red, with the arms of Castile upon it.

The flag of peace, or truce, seems to have been adopted at sea about
the end of the fifteenth century, but although it may be regarded
from one point of view as a signal it will be convenient to defer our
consideration of it until we come to deal with the flag incidents
connected with the surrender of a ship[375].

(ii) THE FIRST ENGLISH CODES[376]

It is evident from the foregoing sketch of the early history of flag
signals that up to the middle of the seventeenth century the signals
of the English navy were of the most elementary description. The
first steps towards the introduction of a more efficient system were
taken in 1647 when the "Right Honourable the Committee of the Lords
and Commons for the Admiralty and Cinque Ports" issued "Instructions"
on a more elaborate plan. The general instructions, dated 6th April,
1647, are preserved; but, unfortunately, the "Instructions for
sailing," issued at the same time, which contained the signals, have
not yet been brought to light. From the "supplementary instructions"
preserved in the Harleian MSS., and printed by Sir Julian Corbett[377],
it may be inferred that the British navy was at length drawing on a
level with the navies of France and Spain in respect to its method of
communicating orders.

In 1653 a further great improvement was made[378], and a "code" of
instructions, with the accompanying signals, now appears, issued "By
the Right Honourable the Generals and Admirals of the Fleet," and
signed by Blake, Deane, and Monk. The following were the flags to be
used for signals: A weft of the ensign or jack, a pendant, and the
three flags--red, blue, and white--already in existence as flags of
command.

The signal to "Engage the enemy," doubtless that used by Monk in
fighting Tromp, and by Blake in his last glorious action of Santa Cruz,
was made "by shooting-off two guns and putting a red flag over the fore
topmast-head."

This Commonwealth code was further expanded in 1665, under the guidance
of the Duke of York, afterwards King James II. In a supplementary order
of the same year, a red and white striped flag first appears as the
signal to chase. In 1672 and 1673 the instructions and signals were
further amplified and then printed, being possibly the first set of
naval fighting instructions to be put into print.

In a finely bound manuscript copy of the 1673 Instructions, now in
the Admiralty Library, which, from internal evidence, was prepared
about 1689, we have the earliest surviving example of the "signal
book" proper. Hitherto the signals had been embodied in the various
Articles of Sailing and Fighting Instructions, the appropriate flag
being merely described in the text of each article, but no diagram or
coloured representation of the flag being given. In this MS. we have
for the first time coloured drawings of flags arranged in order, with
the meaning and place where hoisted against each in parallel columns, a
convenient method of systematising the signals that was not followed in
the official printed "Instructions" for a century.

The flags of the manuscript are as follows:

  Union Flag.
  The Standard.
  Red Ensign.
  Blue Ensign.
  White Ensign.
  Dutch Ensign (red, white, and blue in three horizontal stripes).
  A flag striped red and yellow from corner to corner.
  Red flag.
  Blue flag.
  White flag.
  A "Jack coloured with colours." (This was a "Union Jack," or small
      Union flag.)
  A pendant.
  A flag striped red and white horizontally.
  A flag striped red and white from corner to corner.
  White with red diagonal cross.

In other copies of the 1673 Instructions the last four are omitted, but
a flag striped yellow and white from corner to corner is mentioned as a
signal for fireships.

The Instructions of 1673 formed the basis of the instructions for the
next hundred years. They were issued in a revised form by Admiral
Russell in 1691 when the following signal flags were added:

  Yellow.
  Striped yellow and white horizontally.
  Red and white.
  Genoese Ensign (similar to an elongated St. George's flag).

Russell's instructions were adopted by Rooke in 1703 with but slight
modification of the articles and with no change in the flags.

The year 1714 saw the issue of the first printed "Signal Book."
This was a private venture of one Jonathan Greenwood. The author
justifiably boasts that he has "disposed matters in such a manner that
any instruction may be found out in half a minute," and that he has
"made it a pocket volume that it may be at hand upon all occasions."
No doubt this duodecimo book was much more convenient than the folio
size Instructions. Each signal is represented by a drawing of a ship
flying the flag or flags of the signal at the proper place, the purport
being added underneath, a method which appears to have been in use in
the French navy at least 20 years earlier, for a Signal Book of 1693,
containing De Tourville's signals arranged on this plan, was exhibited
at the Franco-British Exhibition in 1908. Although the instructions
were regarded as confidential the signals apparently were not, as the
work is described as "designed to supply the Inferior Officers who
cannot have recourse to the Printed Instructions."

The next "Signal Book" proper was again a private venture and was
published by John Millan in 1746, "price 2_s._ 6_d._ plain and 4_s._
coloured." In this book the flags are set out along the tops of the
pages, and the signals made with them are classified below, according
to the different positions of the flags, with references to the numbers
of the articles of the various Instructions--"Sailing," "Fighting," and
"Additional"--in which the signals are laid down. The only new flags
appearing here are the following:

  White cross on red ground.
  Red cross on blue ground.
  Blue and white in two horizontal stripes.
  Red and white in two horizontal stripes.

In a manuscript signal book of ten years later, in the Library of the
Royal United Service Institution, we have the earliest representation
of a "chequered" flag. This book is interesting. It contains Hawke's
autograph, and is possibly the one in use by him when he "came sweeping
from the West" at Quiberon. The following are the flags then first
appearing:

  Red, white, and blue in six horizontal stripes.
  Spanish flag.
  Blue and white in five horizontal stripes.
  Red and white chequered.
  Blue with six white balls[379].
  Yellow and blue chequered.
  Blue and white chequered pendant.

During the course of this--the "Seven Years'"--war a number of
"additional" sailing and fighting instructions were issued by the
Admiralty, to which the Admirals in command of fleets made some
additions of their own. The advance made by the end of the war is
indicated by a manuscript signal book dated 1762 containing the
"General Printed and Additional Signals delivered out by Sir Edward
Hawke." It illustrates the following flags:

  Standard.
  Union.
  Red Ensign (called the "English Ensign").
  Red     }
  White   } plain flags.
  Blue    }
  Yellow  }
  Red and white, two          }
  Red and white, seven        }
  Blue and white, two         }
  Blue and white, seven       } horizontal stripes.
  Yellow and white, five      }
  Red, white and blue, three  }
  Red, white and blue, six    }
  Red and blue     }
  Red and white    } chequered.
  Blue and yellow  }
  Red with blue cross.
  Red with white cross.
  Blue with red cross.
  White with red cross.
  White with blue cross.
  Blue pierced with white square.
  Spanish flag.
  Red pendant.
  Red and white striped pendant.

To which, though they are not illustrated, were added a blue pendant
and a white pendant.

Development of signals henceforth became very rapid, and new flags had
to be invented to keep up with them. This is well seen in the signal
book used by Rodney in his memorable fight with De Grasse in 1782. Here
we have, in addition to flags already mentioned, the following new ones:

  Red and white, quarterly.
  Blue and white, quarterly.
  Red and blue, quarterly.
  *Red and blue, two horizontal stripes.
  *Blue and yellow, two horizontal stripes.
  Blue, red, and white, three horizontal stripes.
  Red, white, red, three horizontal stripes.
  *Blue, white, red, three horizontal stripes (inverted Dutch Ensign).
  Red pierced with white[380].
  White pierced with red.
  Yellow and blue, two vertical stripes.
  White and red, two vertical stripes.
  White with blue saltire.
  Yellow with blue cross.
  Blue and yellow in six horizontal stripes.
  Eight pendants.

In addition to these the white and blue ensigns were also to be used
for signalling purposes.

The flags marked * were also used inverted, as were also the
two-striped red and white and blue and white flags already in use.

The signal to "Prepare for battle" was the red flag at the main
topgallant masthead under the Admiral's flag.

To "Engage the enemy"; the same flag at the fore top masthead, just as
in 1653.

"To come to a closer engagement"; the blue and white flag (two
horizontal stripes) at the fore topgallant masthead under the signal
for engaging.

In this code we reach the culmination of the old system of signalling
by means of a large number of different flags each having a different
meaning according to the position in which it was shown.

(iii) THE INVENTION OF NUMERARY SIGNALS

The development of tactics and fleet organisation and the consequent
increase of the signals had been so rapid during the latter half of
the eighteenth century that the old methods had become inadequate. In
1746 there were 16 flags in use to express 144 signals, by 1780 there
were about 50 flags, each hoisted on an average in seven different
positions, providing for about 330 signals. Twenty-five years later the
Trafalgar signal book contained upwards of 400, not including those in
Popham's Code.

So long as the signals were few in number, so that the flags could be
made in a few strongly contrasted designs, and only the most prominent
positions need be used for them, the old system had the advantage of
simplicity, but when the signals multiplied, less conspicuous positions
and less strikingly differentiated flags had also to be made use of,
and simplicity gave place to complexity.

It must be remembered that flags at sea have to be distinguished not
only when a fair breeze is unfurling them plainly to the view; they
have also to be distinguished in a dead calm when they hang down along
the halyards, and when distance and haze lend enchantment to the view
but not to the signalman.

In order that the differences in the flags may be readily
distinguishable at sea in any circumstances two conditions are
essential--

(1) The colours must be quite unlike, so that they do not "merge" at a
distance.

(2) The designs of the flags must be simple and not complicated.

In practice this limits the colours to the following: Red, blue, and
yellow, with black and white. Moreover, it is found that when two of
these colours are to be shown in one flag they should be of one of the
following combinations: red and white, yellow and blue, blue and white,
or black and white. But with so many as 40 flags it was impossible to
adhere to these two rules.

The fact that no further development on old lines was possible was,
no doubt, widely comprehended; for Admiral Sir Chas Knowles tells us
that it was the Marquis of Hastings, an officer in the Army, then
in America, who first advised him to "strike out something new." The
first steps in the new direction were taken about 1778 by Kempenfelt,
Howe, and Sir Chas Knowles, each acting more or less independently.
There is no need to waste time in discussing the rival claims of
these admirals to be the inventor of the numerary method, because as
a matter of fact this method of denoting signals had been invented by
Mahé de la Bourdonnais, 40 years before, for use in the struggle he
was preparing to wage with us for the mastery of India and the East
Indies. La Bourdonnais was one of the most brilliant and versatile
officers that France has produced; but he was of somewhat obscure birth
when compared with the high nobility who at that period officered the
French navy, and he had been admitted to their ranks by a back door,
having first served in the French East India Company. Fortunately for
Great Britain, the jealousy of Dupleix and of La Bourdonnais' high-born
brother officers thwarted his plans, and finally resulted in his
recall to France. His signals seem never to have been adopted[381],
but the system is described by Bourdé de Villehuet in his book, _Le
Manœuvrier_, published in 1769, one of the classic works on tactics of
the eighteenth century. It is evident from an extract in one of his
letters to Lord Barham that it was from this source that Kempenfelt
became acquainted with the system.

The claim of Admiral Sir Chas Knowles to have "discovered the signals
by numbers" in 1778, which numeral signals he gave to Lord Howe on his
arrival at Newport, Rhode Island, may therefore be dismissed, so far as
discovery is concerned, but his claims to have "discovered the tabular
flags (suggested by a chessboard)" may possibly hold good.

Sir Chas Knowles's signals were not adopted in the navy, but as we
shall find "tabular flags" used in the Signal Books of Howe, it will be
well to explain the two methods.

When a signal code has been drawn up and the signals have been numbered
consecutively, the numbers may be represented by flags in two different
ways.

The simple numerary method, that invented by La Bourdonnais and finally
adopted by Howe for his principal signals, is to assign one flag to
each of the figures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0; so that by combining
the flags any desired signal number may be rendered.

The other, the tabular method, for which Sir Chas Knowles claims the
credit of invention, is more complicated. A chequered table like a
chessboard is ruled out, each side having a convenient number of
squares, 8, 9, 10, or more. Then, choosing the same number of flags,
these are laid out in order along the top, commencing at the left-hand
corner, and also down the left side. The signal numbers are then placed
in the squares of this table.

There will then obviously be two flags corresponding to each of the
numbers, the top flag being that at the head of the vertical column in
which the particular number is found, and the lower one that at the
left of the corresponding horizontal column. For example, supposing we
have three flags, red, white, and blue, they might be arranged as below:

          Red   White   Blue
          ----+-------+-----
  Red       1 |   4   |  7
          ----+-------+-----
  White     2 |   5   |  8
          ----+-------+-----
  Blue      3 |   6   |  9
          ----+-------+-----

The signal corresponding to 6 will then be a white flag over a blue one.

If the signals to be thus denoted number considerably more than 100,
it is convenient to form the table of 10 squares to a side, giving 100
squares in all. The first 100 numbers will then be written in, and by
the addition of suitable pendants to represent 100, 200, 300, etc., it
will be possible to denote any signal number from 1 upwards.

The disadvantage of this method is that the individual flags have no
fixed numerical value, and a reference to the table is necessary before
the number represented by the combined flags can be ascertained, and
_vice versâ_.

In spite of this drawback, this was the method first chosen by Howe for
all his signals[382], and it was used by him in his second numerary
code for those of his signals which were intended for the use of
private ships when communicating with the flagships, the numeral
signals of the La Bourdonnais method being in this code only used for
the Admiral's orders to his fleet. In the 1799 Signal Book the tabular
method was discontinued.

Some time before June, 1776, probably on being appointed to command
the North America Squadron in February of that year, Howe had compiled
a signal book on the old plan of single flags in particular positions,
condensed from the "general signal book," and containing all the
signals "likely to be needful on the present occasion."

The flags he employed were as follows, those marked * being also used
inverted:

  Union.
  St George.
  Red    }
  Yellow } plain flags.
  Blue   }
  White  }
  *Red and white    }
  *Red and blue     }
  *Blue and white   } in two horizontal stripes.
  *Red and yellow   }
  *Blue and yellow  }
  *Red, blue, white }
  *White, red, blue } in three horizontal stripes.
  Blue, white, red  }

A year or two later, probably in consultation with Kempenfelt, he drew
up the first of his codes on the numerary system. The signals were
divided into those for the Admiral and those for private ships. For
the former a "table" of 16 squares on each side was employed with the
following flags:

   1. Yellow cross on blue ground.
   2. Blue and yellow quarterly.
   3. Blue cross on yellow.
   4. Yellow.
   5. Blue and yellow chequered.
   6. White and red in two vertical stripes.
   7. Red, white, and red in three vertical stripes.
   8. Yellow and blue in two vertical stripes.
   9. White cross on red.
  10. Red and white chequered.
  11. Red and white in two horizontal stripes.
  12. Red and white quarterly.
  13. Blue and yellow in two horizontal stripes.
  14. Red.
  15. Blue, yellow, blue, in three vertical stripes.
  16. Yellow, blue, yellow, in three horizontal stripes.

The signals for "private" ships were mostly on the old plan of single
flags in particular positions.

To express numbers, as in the number of ships seen, depth of water,
latitude and longitude, a "table" of 10 squares each side was employed.
The flags of this were as follows:

  1. Union.
  2. Red.
  3. White.
  4. Blue.
  5. Red and white.
  6. Blue and yellow.
  7. Red, white, and blue.
  8. Red pendant.
  9. Yellow pendant.
  10. Red, white, and blue pendant,
  and a blue pendant to represent 100 for use in numbers from 101 upwards.

It will be noted that three of the most unsuitable of Rodney's flags,
the quarterly red and blue, striped red and blue, and the red with
blue cross, each of which would look like purple at a distance, had
disappeared.

About the same date Kempenfelt produced his own numerary code. He tells
Lord Barham, in a letter dated March, 1781[383], that the plan he
followed was not that he most approved of.

  That which I would have adopted--though most evidently the best--I
  could not get any of the Admirals or Officers of note to approve
  and countenance. I therefore followed in a great measure Lord
  Howe's mode, he being a popular character.

In this code the transition from the old to the new method is well
seen, for each signal has, besides a signal number for use after the
new method, a flag and position for use after the old, e.g.:

"Engage the enemy" could be signalled as No. 224 or by means of a red
flag at the fore topmast head.

"Prepare for battle" by the same flag at the fore topmast shrouds, or
as No. 226.

"Come to closer engagement" by a red and white flag (two horizontal
stripes) at the main topmast head, or as No. 171.

A special signal was provided to denote that the numerary signals
were going to be used for practice, when every ship was to note down
the significations. Kempenfelt improved upon Howe in that he did not
separate out the "Private ship" signals, but included all in one series
of more than 400 numbers. The flags for signalling by the old method
were mostly the same as those already in use. His "table" for the new
method was of 10 squares a side, as follows:

   1. Union.
   2. Yellow.
   3. Blue and yellow, chequered.
   4. Red pierced with white.
   5. White cross on red ground.
   6. Blue cross on yellow ground.
   7. Red and white, quarterly.
   8. White and red in two vertical stripes.
   9. Yellow and blue in two vertical stripes.
  10. Red and white in four horizontal stripes.
      With pendants for 100, 200, 300, 400, and 500.

Further development of this code ceased in 1782 on Kempenfelt's tragic
end in the 'Royal George.'

[Illustration: PLATE XIII Numerary Signal Flags, (1790-1810)]

From 1783 to 1788 Howe held office as First Lord of the Admiralty,
and seems to have devoted part of his time to the improvement of the
tactics of the Fighting Instructions and of their accompanying signals.
He elaborated a new signal book, which he introduced into the navy on
taking command of the Channel fleet. In this new book he abandoned
the "tabular" method so far as the bulk of the signals--the Admiral's
signals--were concerned, employing instead the simple numerary method,
and for these numerals he chose the flags that were afterwards, in
their transposed meanings, used at Trafalgar. For this reason, and
because it was the code used on the "glorious First of June," and at
Camperdown, and was the basis of those used at St Vincent, the Nile,
Copenhagen, and Trafalgar, it is important to consider it in some
detail.

This second numerary code of Howe, the _Signal Book for the Ships of
War_ of 1790, is a quarto[384] volume of 85 pages.

After three pages of explanatory instructions relative to the method of
making the signals, distinctness, destruction of signal books in danger
of falling into the hands of the enemy, etc., follow two pages relative
to the triangular distinguishing flags of squadrons. We then come to
the Admiral's signals--nearly 200 in number, commencing at 10. These
were, as already stated, in the "simple numerary" system invented by La
Bourdonnais, in which each signal number is represented by the numeral
flags corresponding to the figures composing it.

The numeral flags, five of which--Nos. 2, 3, 4, 6, and 7--are new to
us, are shown in the accompanying plate. Each of these numeral flags
had, however, another signification when hoisted singly, as follows:

  1. Enemy in sight.
  2. Form in order of sailing by divisions.
  3. Form established order of sailing.
  4. Take and keep stations.
  5. Engage the enemy.
  6. Signal not understood.
  7. To chase.
  8. To anchor.
  9. Leave off chase.
  0. Negative answer.

In addition to these, the following flags were to be used:

  White cross on red ground.--Affirmative answer.
  White with red border.--Annul.
  Union.--To call officers.
  Blue and yellow chequered.--Rendezvous.
  Yellow.--To distinguish signals made to the fireships.
  White with red border and pierced with blue.--Transpose the numeral
      flags.
  Red and white, yellow and blue, and their inversions.--For the four
      quarters of the compass.
  Blue cornet[385].--First signal to be carried out in the manner
      denoted by the remainder.
  Red and white striped.--Substitute. To repeat the flag next above it.
  Blue and white striped.--Preparative.
  White flag:--
    (1) Truce.
    (2) Open secret instructions.
    (3) Signal made herewith is to take effect after the close of day.

To illustrate the use of the two latter flags we may take Nelson's
signal at Trafalgar, "Prepare to anchor after the close of day."

This signal consisted of four flags in one hoist:

  Preparative.
  No. 6 }
  No. 3 } Anchor as soon as convenient.
  White flag.

When a "Preparative" flag was hoisted with a signal it denoted that the
order was not to be immediately obeyed[386]. If hauled down together
with the signal, preparation was to be made to obey the latter directly
the Admiral hoisted it again. If hauled down and the signal left
flying, the latter was then to be carried into execution. Nelson had
intended to hoist the signal to anchor (63) as soon as the fighting
was over, with a view to securing his battered ships and their prizes
against the bad weather he saw coming on, but Collingwood could not
carry out the intention.

The white flag had, in the Admiralty copy of the 1790 book, four
meanings. Alone, in battle, it denoted truce; hoisted at the fore
topmast head it could be used to call in distant ships; when hoisted
with other flags it signified that the signal denoted by them was
not to be carried into effect until the day closed; and, finally, it
denoted an order to open secret instructions. In the Signal Book of
1793 the two latter significations were denoted by a black and white
flag, the former when black was uppermost and the latter when white
was uppermost. In 1805 the white flag had the first and third of these
meanings, besides denoting numeral 8.

The Admiral's flags and signals of Howe's second code, as used on 1st
June, 1794, are reproduced in vol. 1 of _Logs of the Great Sea Fights_
(Navy Records Society).

These Admiral's, or "Numeral signals," as they are called by Howe
in contradistinction to his tabular "Signals by private ships," are
grouped under various headings, beginning with "Battle," "Bear-up,"
"Bring-to," and going on to "Enemy," "Engage," "Line," "Order," "Sail,"
"Tack," etc.

We then have certain subsidiary pendant signals, of which the most
important are: a chequered blue and yellow pendant to denote that
accompanying numeral flags represented figures only, and a quartered
red and white pendant to serve the purpose of a note of interrogation.

Now follow nine signals made with sails and guns, a quaint survival
that disappears in 1799 [Except No. 1. This was No. 174 of the '99
Code, but could be made by the fore topsail if desired.] The following
are their purports:

  1. "To prepare for sailing," denoted by loosing the fore topsail,
  just as in Rooke's Instructions of 1703. 2. Every one to repair to
  his respective ship. 3. Recalling ships. 4. Unmoor. 5. Weigh. 6.
  Moor (denoted by "Main topsail loose in top"). 8. Cut or slip. 9.
  Fast on shoal.

We next have 14 signals for calling officers to take orders, made with
the Union flag in different positions; a few signals to fireships,
made with the yellow flag; 20 fog signals made with guns; and then the
tabular signals for private ships. The "table" provided for these shows
a slight variation on the usual form. It is not quite square, being 8
wide and 9 deep, as the first flag space on the left side is blank, so
that the first row 1 to 8 is made by single flags. The flags used are:

  1. Red.
  2. Blue.
  3. White over red, two horizontal stripes.
  4. The same inverted.
  5. Blue over yellow, two horizontal stripes.
  6. The same inverted.
  7. Union.
  8. Blue, white, red, horizontally.

Stars are placed in the four squares whose flags would be one of the
invertible flags over its own inversion, probably because there was
only one flag supplied of each design, and the other squares are
numbered 1 to 68. Sixty-one signals are given. We then have half a
dozen signals with Jacks, Pendants, and Wefts, Signals for each point
of the compass, ending with 11 pages of Night signals.

Perhaps the best testimony of the value of this book is given in the
letter from Nelson to Howe in acknowledgment of his congratulations on
the victory of the Nile:

  8th January 1799.

  It was only this moment that I had the invaluable approbation of
  the great, the immortal Earl Howe, an honour the most flattering a
  Sea-Officer could receive, as it comes from the first and greatest
  Sea-Officer the world has ever produced. I had the happiness to
  command a Band of Brothers; therefore night was to my advantage.
  Each knew his duty, and I was sure each would feel for a French
  ship. By attacking the enemy's van and centre, the wind blowing
  directly along their Line, I was enabled to throw what force I
  pleased on a few Ships. This plan my friends conceived by the
  signals (for which we are principally if not entirely indebted
  to your Lordship) and we always kept a superior force to the
  enemy[387].

Meanwhile, John McArthur, a purser in the navy, who had during the war
of American Independence been frequently stationed to observe signals
in the fleet and had therefore practical experience of the delays,
difficulties and misunderstandings that occurred with the older methods
of signalling by flags in particular positions, had been for many years
at work on a new code which he submitted to the Admiralty in 1790. The
basis of this plan was the old tabular system with two flags hoisted
together or separately at the most conspicuous parts of the ship. The
code contained upwards of 550 signals, with provision for an indefinite
increase, and incorporated an ingenious device for continuously
altering the numerical value of the flags. It was an advance upon
any of the codes hitherto in use, but "some scruples of delicacy
intervened in the adoption of any new plan of signals which would
supersede that of Earl Howe's numerary code," and it was not adopted.
Nevertheless, it attracted the attention of Hood, then the Senior Sea
Lord, and on his appointment to command the Russian armament in 1791
he made McArthur his secretary. McArthur then turned his attention to
re-arranging Howe's signals "by simplifying the form with Indices for
facilitating their being made and understood, and engrafting in the
body and instructions many new ideas and instructions of his own." Howe
approved of the alterations, and the revised code was then printed and
issued to Hood's fleet. This "new arrangement" was introduced by Hood
in 1793 into the Mediterranean and continued to be used there until
1799. It was the signal book in use at the Battles of St Vincent and
the Nile. In it the values of Howe's numeral flags, as shown in Col. 1
of Plate XIII, were transposed as follows: 1 became 4; 2, 9; 3, 7; 4,
2; 5, 6; 6, 0; 7, 8; 8, 5; 9, 3; and 0, 1. The tabular flags were also
transposed, 1 becoming 8; 2, 7; 3, 5; 5, 3; 6, 2; 7, 1; 8, 6; while 4
remained of the same value.

(iv) THE VOCABULARY SIGNAL BOOK

With the compilation, in 1790, of Howe's second signal book, we
have the end of that system, or want of system, which is especially
noticeable during the American War of Independence, under which the
signals used in each fleet or squadron varied with the idiosyncrasies
of each individual commander-in-chief. Henceforth, although it was
usual for the admiral commanding each fleet to add a few of his own
devising, the bulk of the signals were, so to speak, stereotyped in
form, and were in general use throughout the British navy.

In 1799 the _Signal Book for the Ships of War_ was increased in size to
167 pages by the addition of an index to the signals and the inclusion
of the printed instructions. The "Private ship" signals were placed at
the end of the "Admiral's signals" and numbered consecutively after
them, so that the "tabular" flags disappear, and all signals are
henceforth made by the simple numerary code, the total number being
increased from about 260 to 340.

It will be seen from the plate of numeral flags that Howe's numerals
were continued in the 1799 book with only two slight modifications: No.
1, instead of being a plain red flag, became yellow, red, yellow, in
three equal horizontal stripes, and the substitute became plain white.
But his arrangement was simplified. The half black and white flags were
done away with as unnecessary, since their meanings could equally well
be expressed by those remaining.

In addition to the signal book, each commander-in-chief compiled for
his own fleet a tabular "pendant board," on which two pendants were
assigned to the name of each ship of his fleet. By this means he was
enabled to address any of the signals to a particular ship, without
making the command general to the whole squadron. For example, Nelson,
at Trafalgar, before making general his favourite signal, "Engage the
enemy more closely," addressed it particularly to the 'Africa,' which,
having become separated over night, found herself at a distance from
the two columns, and, just before the commencement of the action, was
sailing near to the enemy's van, on an opposite and parallel course.
This he did by hoisting flags Nos. 1 and 6, together with the pendants
appropriated to the 'Africa's' name on the "pendant board."

But a code for signalling or other purposes is like a language; if the
language is what we call "dead," i.e. if words have ceased to be added
to it, it is of little use for expressing every-day needs. Similarly,
if the navy is not stagnating, continual amplification of tactics or of
every-day details necessitates an increase in the range of conversation
between the Admiral and his fleet. Although at the time of the battle
of Trafalgar the signal book was only six years old, it had already
had its range of signals increased by upwards of 80 additions, made in
manuscript, on such varied matters as:

  412. "The ships or vessels chased have separated on different courses."
  280. "Send for fresh beef immediately."
  291. "Engage the enemy as close as possible."

This last is the third signal provided for close engagement, the others
being "Engage the enemy more closely," expressed either by No. 16 (the
signal Nelson favoured), or by the red pendant over the quarter-red and
white flag.

The need for a more flexible method of communication than that of
set sentences had long been felt. Rodney and Howe had both found it
impossible, in face of the enemy, to make their instructions clear to
their captains, and even without this distraction, in bad weather, when
ships could not get near enough for the voice to carry from one to
another even with the assistance of the speaking trumpet, or when the
roar of the gale rendered speech of no avail except within a range of a
very few feet, while the launching of a boat was out of the question,
much inconvenience had often been felt. Even when verbal communication
was possible, much time was lost in closing near enough to make it.

The steps to remedy this impediment--to make, as it were, the
flag-language more civilised, so that it might express refinements of
thought in one direction and little every-day wants in another, to
increase, that is, its scope of expression from that of a child to that
of a grown man--were first taken by Sir Home Popham.

It may be that in this matter, as in so many other inventions, the
first to make some practical use of an idea got that idea at second
hand[388]. However this may be in Popham's case, it is clear that
the labour of perfecting the invention and what is perhaps equally
important, of persuading others that it was really worth a trial,
was undertaken by Popham alone. For twelve years the books which he
produced were privately printed by him, and from the free-handed way
in which he gave them to his brother officers when urging them to try
this code, it is probable that he carried out his propaganda at some
pecuniary expense to himself. The idea that dominated it was to provide
parts of speech and let the users make their own sentences whenever
those in the signal book did not suffice. It was the step from a
"Traveller's Manual of Conversation" to a dictionary of the language.

Popham tells us that his _Telegraphic Signals, or Marine Vocabulary_
("telegraphic" being, of course, used thirty years before the invention
of the electric telegraph, in its primary sense of writing at a
distance) was originally compiled in 1800, to facilitate the conveyance
of messages from Popham's ship, the 'Romney,' off Copenhagen, to
Admiral Dickson, off Elsinore, when that officer, with a squadron of
ships, was giving additional weight to the British Ministers' arguments
with the Danish Court. "Its utility was in that instance so obvious and
so generally allowed by the Captains of the North Sea Squadron that Sir
Home Popham conceived it might be brought into more extensive practice."

The first edition of this code consisted of nearly 1000 words chosen by
Popham from the dictionary as most useful for naval purposes. In 1803 a
second part, consisting of nearly 1000 less useful words, and a third
part, consisting of nearly 1000 "sentences most applicable to military
or general conversation" were added. To prevent the signal numbers from
becoming unduly high, derivations were grouped with their root-word,
e.g. expedite, expedited, expediting, expedition, and expeditious were
each expressed by No. 270, it being left for the receiver to determine
the exact word by the context. Further, "In verbs, the number, person,
tense and mood" had to "be applied to the sense of the sentence."
When the exact word was not in the vocabulary, the one most nearly
synonymous was to be adopted, but "should it be of any consequence to
use a word not in the vocabulary," it could be spelt by the numerical
alphabet, which was known by the numbers 1 to 25. It may be noted, as
the solution of the conundrum that has puzzled many in spelling out
"duty" in Nelson's celebrated signal that in this alphabet, not only
are I and J treated as one letter, but V precedes U.

Thus, in the preparation for that signal, when Pasco told Nelson that
"confides" was not in the vocabulary, he suggested the "one nearest
synonymous," namely, "expects," as this latter could be expressed by
three flags in one hoist, while "confides" required 11 flags in eight
hoists. "Duty," however, had to be spelt[389]. The sentiment of the
signal had been sufficiently spoilt by the substitution of "expects"
for "confides"; the further substitution of "best" or "utmost" would
have hopelessly ruined it.

When the words of the message had been chosen from the vocabulary and
their corresponding numbers written down for the signalman's guidance,
it remained to translate them into flags. To do this required nine
flags to represent the figures 1 to 9, and one flag to represent the
cipher. It was convenient to add one or two substitute flags to say
"ditto," in case not more than one flag of each numeral was available,
with two flags for "yes" and "no."

Popham found all these flags already provided in the 1799 _Signal Book
for the Ships of War_, but the thousands he expressed thus: numbers
between 1000 and 2000 by a ball or pendant placed above the "hoist,"
or group of three flags representing the hundreds, tens, and units;
and numbers above 2000 by a similar ball or pendant placed below the
"hoist." This was done to avoid unduly increasing the "substitute"
flags, as one set of numeral flags was often all that was available,
and for the same reason such numbers as 333, 888, 2222 were omitted
from the code.

All that was now wanted was a flag to denote whether the signal hoisted
was to be deciphered by the Signal Book or by the Vocabulary Code. For
this purpose Popham designed a flag divided diagonally into white and
red to be used as a "preparative" or "telegraph" flag, with all signals
made in his code. This was hoisted before the message started, and
hauled down when it finished.

Such were the signal books in use at Trafalgar, and in the hands of a
man like Nelson, who did not keep his tactical ideas to himself, but
discussed them freely with his captains during the months of watching
and preparation, they proved amply sufficient for the purpose.

But suppose the books were captured by the enemy; how then? In such
an event, which all captains were told to guard against by throwing
the books overboard if there was any probability of their ship being
captured, the most effective precaution was to change the whole of the
signal numbers, both in the general signals and in the vocabulary, but
this was a heavy task.

A less effective method was to transpose all the flags. It was less
effective since, _ex hypothesi_, the enemy had the signal books, they
had therefore only to note the colours of the flags which preceded
some easily recognised manoeuvre, such as "Make more sail," "Bear up
and sail large," to discover what flags were now being used to indicate
the signal numbers which they saw against that signal. A little
patience and ingenuity would then supply the key to the changes in the
flags, whereas if all the signal numbers were irregularly transposed,
each signal would have to be re-constituted separately by the enemy.

About fifteen months before Trafalgar the 12-gun schooner, 'Redbridge,'
commanded by a Lieut. Lemprière, who, to judge by Nelson's remarks
about him, was not particularly efficient, was captured by some French
frigates off Toulon. Such a small ship, commanded by an officer of
such subordinate rank, was not allowed the confidential signal books,
but Lemprière had, in common with many other junior officers, obtained
a surreptitious copy for himself--one of those little manuscript and
hand-painted signal books one sees in museums, or occasionally picks up
in second-hand book shops.

This book Lieut. Lemprière had neglected to throw overboard, and when,
later on, one of Nelson's scouts, looking into Toulon harbour to see if
the French were getting on comfortably, found the captured 'Redbridge'
just outside, the latter made the signal for the scout ship to anchor;
but fortunately the officer in command was a little sharper than the
'Redbridge's' late commander had been, and the net was spread in vain.

Directly Nelson learned this he changed the flags and reported the
matter to the Admiralty. On the 4th November, the Admiralty, despite
the objection of Lord Keith that a change of signal numbers would be
better, issued a circular letter to all commanders-in-chief telling
them to alter their numeral flags in accordance with a painted copy
enclosed with the letter. These are the flags shown in the third column
of the plate. Further, as their Lordships had reason to apprehend that
Lieut. Lemprière was not the only officer under commander's rank who
had obtained a copy of the signal book, the strictest injunctions were
to be given that such improper proceedings were not to take place in
future, and existing irregular copies were to be impounded.

The flags in use in the Mediterranean were changed in numerical value
in accordance with the Admiralty order on the 16th January, 1804, and
these new numeral flags were the ones used at Trafalgar, and, in fact,
until the end of 1810[390].

We have seen that Howe's second code, first in its original form, next
as re-arranged by McArthur, and finally as simplified and expanded for
the 1799 Signal Book, in each case with practically the same numeral
flags, sufficed, when supplemented by Popham's Vocabulary, for the
navy's needs throughout the most sustained and strenuous struggle that
until the recent war had ever fallen to its lot[391].

Towards the close of this period, however, Popham, who seems to have
devoted all the time not required for his professional duties, or for
defence against the attacks made upon him, to the improvement of his
code[392], brought out a greatly enlarged and improved vocabulary,
which is best described in his own words:

  The present edition is wholly new cast and composed; very
  considerably enlarged by additional materials; and, as I trust,
  improved by a distribution of those materials which was intended to
  increase the facility of reference.

  It consists of nearly 6,000 primitive words, exclusive of the
  inflexions of verbs, &c., making in all upwards of 30,000 real
  words; the sentences have also been extended to about 6,000, with
  1,500 syllables, a Geographical Table, a Table of Technical Terms,
  a Table of Stores and Provisions, and a Spare Table for Local
  Significations.

With so large a number of signals the limitation in the number of
flags that can be conveniently hoisted at a time made itself at once
felt, and Popham found himself compelled to abandon the "simple
numerary" method. Taking the limit of convenience at three flags,
the ten numeral flags of the Admiralty Signal Book would suffice for
only 999 signals. Popham, therefore, after calculating the number of
combinations available with various sets of flags, chose 23. These,
which were mostly of his own design, he denoted by the numbers 1 to 9
and the letters A to O. With these 23 flags the number of available
combinations is as follows:

  Singly                        23
  Two at a time                506
  Three at a time           10,626
                  Total     11,155

So that upwards of 11,000 signals could be made using no more than
three flags in one hoist.

Hoisting four flags at a time, the number of possible signals with 23
flags is increased by 212,520, making 223,675 in all, sufficient for
the most exhaustive vocabulary. If this code had been invented seven
years earlier, Nelson could have made his signal in precisely his own
words, the first three of which would have been as follows: England,
69B; confides, 5I3; that, B67. Curiously enough, Popham, in 1812, seems
to have preferred "confides" to "expects," for the former was one of
"most needed" words and could be made by three flags, whereas "expects"
was No. 6138 and required four.

In demonstrating the extensive use to which his code could be put,
Popham gives one or two amusing illustrations, apparently in all
seriousness. Thus:

  FA1  Have you an idea
  G647 a change of ministers is about to take place

  52A  Certainly
  8BF  not
  G643 ministers are gaining strength

  BOE  Your
  AC8  sister
  852  married
  85F  to
  C87  a Lord of the Admiralty

This vocabulary, published in 1812, was such an evident improvement
that it was issued to the fleet in 1813.

In 1816 it was revised by Popham and re-issued by the Admiralty as an
official Vocabulary Signal Book. Eleven years later the signal books