Some days, I wonder why I'm so interested in what is basically a brightly coloured rag sent up a wooden pole, that somehow conveys a lawful order.
The era of Naval flag signals that captivates me the most is that of the Royal Navy from 1799 to 1805. It may seem like a relatively brief period, but it was a time of significant global events, making the Royal Navy's flag signals all the more intriguing.
For me, it saw the start of a unified approach to Naval flag signals, as up to this time, the meaning of flags could differ depending on the flag officer commanding. Each flag officer would produce their signal books, which were given to vessels under their control.
1799 saw the introduction of a standard set of signals for ships of war. The following year, Captain Sir Home Popham brought out his Telegraphic Signals or Marine Vocabulary, which was also adopted by the Admiralty this is the code that was used in 1805 by Nelson's signal officer to send his "England Expects" message.
I picture that the Georgian Royal Navy as far more colourful as the current fleet from the painted hulls to these massive (in todays terms) flags of all sorts. For my research about the size of signal flags used at the time which lead me to email the National Museum of the Royal Navy in Portsmouth to find out what size flags are used on VICTORY when they hoist Nelsons signal on the anniversary of Trafalgar, unfortunately they didn't have that information but pointed to Admiralty library which is part of the Royal Navy historical command and also Yeoman of the Admiralty (YOTA) who is also the Fleet Seamanship Warrant Officer.
Big shout out to Jenny from the Admiralty Library putting up with my flag based questions! She managed to find a note in Flags at sea by Timothy Wilson (1986) its cites "1790 Navy Board letter, instructing Lord Howe that on the larger ships, signal flags were to be ’14 breadths, or about 12 ft broad, 14 ft long’ and on the smaller ‘about 10ft broad, 12 ft long’". Also Thank you to the YOTA who was able to let me know that the current fleet standard is Size 4: 21" X 18" - 53cm X 46cm.
I still couldn't find out the size of the flags currently used on board VICTORY for the Trafalgar hoists so having no luck with online sources I took to the car and headed the 3 hours down to Portsmouth and do some on the ground research. I headed down and went aboard VICTORY and found some of the guides and tried not to come across as a total flag nerd with my questions.
MASSIVE Thanks to James on the Lower gundeck and the duty Royal Navy Quartermaster who managed to find out for me. The flags used on board for the hoist were roughly Size 10: 84" X 60" - 213cm X 152cm.
