Of all the mediums for visual signalling at sea: flags, semaphore and by light, signalling by flag was developed entirely by and for seafarers. The timeline on the pages that follow traces the use of flags at sea from the basic requirement of the admiral to call a council of his captains to the codification of complex manoeuvres embodied in the work of Admirals Hawke, Howe, Kempenfelt and Rodney. Many names will be familiar, others less so; for this is a story that, while focusing on the development of flag design and signalling practice in the Royal Navy, extends beyond our shores to acknowledge the advocacy and tactical thinking of allies and former adversaries.
Early records of flag signals reflect the more highly developed naval warfare between Mediterranean states where galleys and combined fleets of sail and oared vessels both enabled and required the coordination of complex manoeuvres. In Nathaniel Boteler’s Sea Dialogues (1627-34) we get the first proposals in Britain for specifically coloured signal flags, but it was the pressure of the Dutch wars later in the seventeenth century that saw the issue of the ‘Commonwealth Code’ and ‘Fighting Instructions’ under the direction of General-at-Sea Sir Robert Blake. The first systematic tabulation of signals was included in the 1673 Articles of Sailing and Fighting Instructions which formed the basis upon which signalling at sea evolved over the following century. Code flags included in the 1673 Articles are shown on pages 18 and 19, as are many of the variations of colour and design that found their way into the flag lockers and signal books of HM ships.
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The illustration below is one of 52 engravings commissioned from marine artist T L Hornbrook for an 1834 English translation by Captain J D Boswall RN of Père Paul Hoste’s Treatise on Naval Tactics. Hoste’s original 1697 Traité des Évolutions Navales was first published in English in 1763 and was almost certainly influential in British tactical thinking and the signals by which fleet evolutions were conducted. See also page 41.
The second half of the 18th century, often marked by conflict at sea, saw a gradual move from the haphazard introduction of new signals by individual commanders-in-chief to a settled consensus captured in the final iteration of Admiral Lord Howe’s 1799 Signal Book for the Ships of War. But it was not without some resistance as the good-humoured exchange between Admiral Geary and his Flag Captain at the foot of the previous page shows.
From the turn of the 19th century and the introduction of Popham’s Marine Vocabulary, the pace quickened. By midcentury, several flag systems competed for the lucrative commercial market which naval signalmen were also required to learn. At the same time the sea-going adaptations of the new land telegraphs, described in the later sections of this book, added to their workload. This is therefore as much the signalman’s story as that of the fleet tacticians and colour theorists who compiled the signal book.