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Signal-book for the Ships of War, 1799

See also:

The Signal-book for the Ships of War, 1799 can be found at the University of Rhode Island: http://digitalcommons.uri.edu/sc_pubs/15.
It shows:

It mentions a number of signals with single flags
[All images by Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 15 February 2010; larger images available by clicking on displayed images.]
Numeral flags:

	1 - Enemy in sight.	Red
	2 - Sailing by Divisions.	White with blue cross
	3 - Order of Sailing.	Blue with white pale
	4 - Station, to keep it in Battle or Sailing.	Yellow with black borders along the flywise edges
	5 - Engage.	Quartered red and white
	6 - Signal not distinct.	Per rising diagonal white over blue
	7 - Chase.	Blue with yellow saltire
	8 - Anchor.	Per pale yellow and blue
	9 - Recall from Chase.	Blue over white over red
	10 - Truce.	White
	11 - Answer, different.	Blue pierced white.

Supplemental flags:

	12. Affirms.	Red with white cross
	13 - Annuls.	White with a red border
	14. Officers wanted.	Union Jack (of two kingdoms).
	15 - Signals to take effect after close of day.	White over black.
	16 - Secret Instruction	Black over white (presumably 15 upside down).
	17 - Rendez-vous.	Chequered of twelve, blue and yellow
	18 - Fire Ships.	Yellow
	19 - Change of Numeral Signals.	White bordered red, pierced black
	23 - Compass Signal, N. E.	White over red
	24 - Compass Signal, N. W.	Red over white (presumably 23 upside down).
	25 - Compass Signal, S. E.	Blue over yellow
	26 - Compass Signal, S. W.	Yellow over blue (presumably 25 upside down).
	27 - Cornet.	Blue cornet
	28 - Preparative.	Five stripes blue over white

Then the numeral flags are described in a separate section: 1-9 are the same, but Blue pierced white is 0, while White is substitute Flag. This difference must be what makes uncertain which flags were the 0 and substitute in the first Popham code.

The pennant white with red fly denotes 100. While that one is printed, a spaced was left open below it, which was filled with a pennant white with blue hoist with written-in that this serves to denote 200. (The highest number used is signal 205.)

For pendant signals, with significance depending on the hoist location, a number of pennants is being used:

	Red Pendant	Red
	Blue Pendant	Blue
	Striped Red White and Blue	Tapering stripes of red over white over blue. This is probably also the pennant that elsewhere is indicated as Dutch.
	Alternate Red and White	Horizontally alternating red and white, the fourth red longer and colouring the tip.
	Chequered Blue and Yellow	Chequered of ten blue and yellow
	Quartered Red and White	Quartered red and white

Plus one pennant pictured but unnamed, that is probably:

White Pendant

White

(I've drawn the pennants at a manageable size; the actual ratio may be more than twice as long.)

Signals by private ships by day are also flag signals. These, the tabular signals, are given as numbers of a table starting, horizontally, with the numbers
1 red
2 blue
3 white over red
4 red over white
5 blue over yellow
6 yellow over blue
7 Union Jack
8 blue over white over red

then the same list is repeated vertically to indicate the second flag in a two flag hoist, resulting in:
9 red, red
10 blue, red
etc.

Substitute white
Annul yellow

This would allow for 72 numbers, if it weren't for the fact that the combinations of 3 and 4 have to be skipped, for them being the same flag, and likewise for 5 and 6, resulting in 68 numbers. Drawn at the bottom of the page, however, is an additional pennant, with written above it "70. Pendant". As this is a pennant, it's probably meant to be similar to the 100 pennant, in this case adding 70 to the number - red before white before blue <gb~sswxp.gif>. The highest signal number in this case is 80, which is a printed instruction, suggesting the pennant was draws to correct an commission, not as an extension.

A few signals are given in a different way, e.g.:
MAN - That one has fallen overboard. To be denoted by a common Pendant at Ensign staff.

(Copied inconsistencies from the original as well I could.)
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 15 February 2010

The 1799 book exposes a long standing error about the flag that represented numeral 'one'.

Hulme (1894), Gordon (1915), Perrin (1922), Wheeler-Holohan (1939) and Holland (1930s) all wrote that the flag representing numeral 'one' in the 1799 Signal Book was 'yellow over red over yellow'. In the copy of that book in the University of Rhode Island collections it is 'red'. It could have been that the flag was incorrectly coloured, in that particular copy, when the coloured flags were added by hand to the black and white print, but fortunately there is a reference to the flag in the Remarks next to the flags; "If he would express the No. 31, this Flag No. 3 will be hoisted over a Red Flag No. 1, making together the number 31". This means that the numeral flags in the 1799 book were the same, with the same meaning, as the flags in Lord Howe's numerary system of 1790. The 'yellow over red over yellow flag' replaced the 'red flag' before 1803, as the latter did not feature in the revised code of that year. A possible reason for the change was that the command flag of the red squadron could be confused with it, when it was flown as a 'single flag' signal. A note after the signification of the 'red flag' reads, "The flag will be shewn with a common Pendant over, by Flag-Officers of the Red Squadron having occasion to make this signal."
David Prothero, 17 February 2010

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