In this account of the history of British flags I have not dwelt upon the immaterial or emotional aspects of these important national emblems; partly because this seemed somewhat foreign to the aim I had in view; partly because this side has been sufficiently illustrated in other works. There is, however, one aspect which may receive an illustration here. Among the privileges and duties of which a British flag has for so many centuries been an outward emblem, not the least in value has been that of freedom. Towards the end of 1769 Lord St Vincent, then plain Captain Jervis, was in the Port of Genoa in H.M.S. 'Alarm.' Two Turkish galley slaves temporarily released from their chains were walking on the mole near their galley when they caught sight of one of the 'Alarm's' boats. They jumped into her and wrapped themselves in the British colours, claiming their freedom. The Genoese guard removed them by force, part of the boat's pendant being torn away in the struggle. Jervis demanded of the Doge and Senate of Genoa that the officer of the guard should bring the slaves with the fragment of the colours and make a formal apology on the quarter deck of the 'Alarm.' When this had been done, Jervis "asked the slave who had wrapped the pendent round his body what were his sensations when the guard tore him from the pendent staff. His reply was that he felt no dread for he knew that the touch of the royal colours gave him freedom." And upon this note I must make an end. FOOTNOTES: [395] Twiss, _Black Book of the Admiralty_, I, 129. [396] Hakluyt, _Voyages_, VII, 103. [397] _S. P. D. Chas I_, CXCII, 3. [398] Grant, _The Old Scots Navy_ (N.R.S.), p. 337. [399] _The Observations of Sir Richard Hawkins, Knight, in his Voiage into the South Sea_, p. 155. [400] _S. P. D. Inter._, XXIX, 11. [401] _First Dutch War_ (N. R. S.), V, 319. [402] 1626, reprinted with additions as _A Sea Grammar_ in 1627 and 1653. [403] The 'Bahama' (Sp.), the 'Argonauta' (Sp.) and the 'Achille' (Fr.) indicated their surrender by displaying Union jacks from the deck. [404] Charnock, _Biographia Navalis_, V, 318. [405] Reproduced in Corbett, _Drake and the Tudor Navy_, I, 363. [406] _Pepys MSS._ Narborough's Journal, 9th September, 1673. This ship was actually fired at for not striking the flag on coming near the fleet! [407] The practice of towing captured galleys stern foremost with their flags trailing in the water was in vogue as early as the end of the thirteenth century. [408] Gardiner, _First Dutch War_ (N. R. S.), I, 23. [409] _The Seaman's Narrative_, 1796, p. 127. [410] _The Voyage of Robert Dudley to the West Indies_ (Hakluyt Soc.), II, 3. [411] _International Law_, I, 568. [412] The date is not known, but it was after 1672. Cf. Narborough's Journal, 29th May, 1672: "A seaman set at the Foretopmasthead with the Flagg of Defiance loose in his arms ready to hoist." [413] See p. 117. [414] _Fragments of Voyages and Travels_, 3rd Series, vol. III, p. 6.