#maritime flags

International maritime signal flags refers to various flags used to communicate with ships.

These flags are used at sea for communication. They can spell out short messages, and individual flags and various combinations of flags also have special meanings. On ceremonial and festive occasions the signal flags are used to 'dress' (decorate) ships.

The principal system of flags and associated codes is the International Code of Signals. Various navies have flag systems with additional flags and codes, and other flags are used in special uses, or have historical significance.

They are a set of flags of different colors, shapes and markings which used singly or in combination have different meanings. The flags include 26 square flags which depict the letters of the alphabet, ten numeral pendants, one answering pendant, and three substituters or repeaters.

Only a few colors can be readily distinguished at sea. These are: red, blue, yellow, black, and white; and these cannot be mixed indiscriminately.

The different flag signals

One flag signals: Urgent or very common signals. 

Two flag signals: Distress and maneuvering signals. 

Three flag signals: Points of the compass, relative bearings, standard times, verbs, punctuation, also general code and decode signals. 

Four flags: Geographical signals, names of ships, bearings, etc. 

Five flag signals: Relating to time and position. 

Six flag signals: Indicate north or south or east or west in latitude and longitude signals. 

Seven flags: Longitude signals containing more than one hundred degrees.

The signalling system was drafted in 1855 and published in 1857, and was gradually adopted by most seafaring countries. It was revised in 1932.

History of the nautical flag

The designs of the individual flags are lost in the mists of time. They were developed separately for various iterations of naval and merchant marine signal codes over the course of the 18th and early 19th centuries.

Nautical flags were originally used in ancient military encounters where flags signaled other fleet members to take specific actions.  

Early flag communications were limited; the primary use was to signal the need for a conference where more detailed instruction could then be provided.

It was in 1857 that the International Code of Signals was officially published by the British Board of Trade.

The purpose of the code was to establish a set of rules for maritime communication that everyone would understand. Originally the code included 18 signal flags that could be combined to signal about 17,000 various messages.

Any guesses on what this quilt is saying? So… I’ve been working with flags lately after a longtime fascination with flags and more recently, nautical flags, has gotten me going about a few new projects. For those of you land lubbers, inland dwellers or non-sailors who don’t know yet- there’s a international code of signals used at sea for relaying communication back and forth between ships or…

by Scott Mainwaring, Vexilloid Tabloid #53 Every June, Portland’s Rose Festival welcomes “the fleet” from the US and Canada.  Moored along the Willamette river, the ships display a colorful range of flags to see—ensigns, jacks, signal flags, and courtesy flags. A large Maple Leaf Flag, along with many smaller flags, flies from the sailing ketch HMCS Oriole, a Canadian Navy sail training vessel…

Flag Pole Height Chart and Maritime Flag Arrangements

For our purposes, flagpole means a permanent pole cemented into the ground and flagstaff is one that is carried.

For flagpoles a general rule of thumb is the height of the flag should be 1/3 or 1/5 the height of the flagpole (the pole should be three or five times the height of the flag). Here is an example.

For a twenty-five foot flagpole:

1/5 of twenty-five is five.

1/3 of twenty-five is eight…