#naval flags

Half of me is losing it over the poetry of this definition from Timothy Wilson's Flags at Sea—your true colours shown at the moment you attack!— and the other half is prosaically wondering if this is even a viable technique nowadays for anyone besides a handful of pirate vessels.

I think that modern warships are too distinctive to be disguised so easily, not to mention satellite monitoring of their movements. I can just imagine, looking at the super-obvious American destroyer through binoculars, and there are random USA flag bumperstickers all over it.

"Isn't that a Canadian jack, sir?"