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
In a manuscript signal book of ten years later, in the Library of the
Royal United Service Institution, we have the earliest representation
of a "chequered" flag. This book is interesting. It contains Hawke's
autograph, and is possibly the one in use by him when he "came sweeping
from the West" at Quiberon. The following are the flags then first
appearing:
Red, white, and blue in six horizontal stripes.
Spanish flag.
Blue and white in five horizontal stripes.
Red and white chequered.
Blue with six white balls[379].
Yellow and blue chequered.
Blue and white chequered pendant.
During the course of this--the "Seven Years'"--war a number of
"additional" sailing and fighting instructions were issued by the
Admiralty, to which the Admirals in command of fleets made some
additions of their own. The advance made by the end of the war is
indicated by a manuscript signal book dated 1762 containing the
"General Printed and Additional Signals delivered out by Sir Edward
Hawke." It illustrates the following flags:
Standard.
Union.
Red Ensign (called the "English Ensign").
Red }
White } plain flags.
Blue }
Yellow }
Red and white, two }
Red and white, seven }
Blue and white, two }
Blue and white, seven } horizontal stripes.
Yellow and white, five }
Red, white and blue, three }
Red, white and blue, six }
Red and blue }
Red and white } chequered.
Blue and yellow }
Red with blue cross.
Red with white cross.
Blue with red cross.
White with red cross.
White with blue cross.
Blue pierced with white square.
Spanish flag.
Red pendant.
Red and white striped pendant.
To which, though they are not illustrated, were added a blue pendant
and a white pendant.
Development of signals henceforth became very rapid, and new flags had
to be invented to keep up with them. This is well seen in the signal
book used by Rodney in his memorable fight with De Grasse in 1782. Here
we have, in addition to flags already mentioned, the following new ones:
Red and white, quarterly.
Blue and white, quarterly.
Red and blue, quarterly.
*Red and blue, two horizontal stripes.
*Blue and yellow, two horizontal stripes.
Blue, red, and white, three horizontal stripes.
Red, white, red, three horizontal stripes.
*Blue, white, red, three horizontal stripes (inverted Dutch Ensign).
Red pierced with white[380].
White pierced with red.
Yellow and blue, two vertical stripes.
White and red, two vertical stripes.
White with blue saltire.
Yellow with blue cross.
Blue and yellow in six horizontal stripes.
Eight pendants.
In addition to these the white and blue ensigns were also to be used
for signalling purposes.
The flags marked * were also used inverted, as were also the
two-striped red and white and blue and white flags already in use.
The signal to "Prepare for battle" was the red flag at the main
topgallant masthead under the Admiral's flag.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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