British Flags: Their Early History, and Their Development at Sea: With an Account of the Origin of the Flag as a National DevicePerrin, William Gordon
History
British Flags: Their Early History, and Their Development at Sea: With an Account of the Origin of the Flag as a National Device
Perrin, William Gordon
Flags -- Great Britain
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:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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