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International maritime signal flags are various flags used to communicate with ships. The principal system of flags and associated codes is the International Code of Signals . [ 1 ] Various navies have flag systems with additional flags and codes, and other flags are used in special uses, or have historical significance.
At first it was used concurrently with the old system until 1 January 1902, and then used exclusively after 1 January 1903. In this new edition, the number of flags was increased from 18 flags plus a code pennant to 26 flags and a code pennant. The eight new flags represented the vowels A E I O U and the letters X Y Z. [2]
In this code, alphabet letters were equated with three positions of a single flag, disk, or light. The flags measured two, four, or six feet (60, 120 or 180 cm) square and were generally either red or black banners with white square centers or white banners with red square centers. [ 7 ]
The larger flag and its motion allow messages to be read over greater distances than semaphore. Messages could be sent at night using torches instead of flags. The most common code used with wigwag had three motions, only two of which were needed to form letters of the alphabet.
Code numbers 1–25 represented letters of the alphabet (omitting J and with V=20 before U=21); [8] higher numbers were assigned meanings by a code book. [9] The code numbers typically would have been hoisted on the mizzenmast , one after another, preceded by the "telegraphic flag" (a red over white diagonally-split flag) [ 10 ] to show that ...
Naval flag signalling undoubtedly developed in antiquity in order to coordinate naval action of multiple vessels. In the Peloponnesian War (431 – 401 BCE) squadrons of Athenian galleys were described by Thucydides as engaging in coordinated maneuvers which would have required some kind of communication; [1] there is no record of how such communication was done but flags would have been the ...
Code numbers 1–25 represented letters of the alphabet (omitting J and with V=20 before U=21); [9] higher numbers were assigned meanings by a code book. [ 11 ] The code numbers are believed to have been hoisted on the mizzenmast , one after another, with the "telegraphic flag" (a red-over-white diagonally-split flag) [ 12 ] also being flown to ...
In 1857, the United Kingdom sponsored the Commercial Code of Signals for the Use of All Nations at Sea, which introduced four letter flag signal codes to identify individual ships. [3] The first vessel to be reported in Lloyd's List by her letters was the Mallard (LDPN), off Deal, Kent whilst on a voyage from London to Calcutta , India . [ 4 ]