The International Maritime Flag System has existed for over 150 years and is widely used by sailors and boaters to send signals to other ships and inland stations. In 1857, the British Board of Trade published the International Code of Signals to improve the method of maritime communications. The first Code had 18 signal flags, which can forward 17,000 unique messages. In 1932, the Code was enhanced to feature six more languages, namely Spanish, Italian, German, French, Norwegian and Japanese. In 1969, two more languages, Greek and Russian, were added to the list as well as each of the alpha-numeric nautical flags given specific meanings in the International Code of Signals. Aside from improving maritime communication, signal flags at present are featured to improve the look of vessels for festive events. Mariners will connect the flags from one end to the other and display these from the rigging of the ship.
The Colors and What These Mean
Nautical flags are made up of various figures, symbols and hues. These can be used alone or in a set to feature different meanings. The flags will provide 26 square flags for each letter in the alphabet and there are 10 numeral pendants too. The flag colors were specifically chosen because these remain visible at sea. These tones are white, blue, yellow, black and red.
One-flag signals are for common and emergency messages. Two-flag signals are for distress and control signals. Three-flag signals are for standard times, compass points, general codes, decoding signals, verbs and punctuations. Four-flag signals are for names of vessels and geographic messages. Five-flag signals are for position and time. Six-flag signals are to point the direction in terms of latitude and longitude.
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The Flagman
