Ship Flags

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Ship Flags

There are various methods that the flags can be used as signals:

each flag spells out a letter of an alphabetic message.

individual flags have specific and standard meanings; for example, Diving Support Vessel s raise the "A flag" indicating their inability to move from their current location because they have a diver underwater.

one or more flags form a code word whose meaning can be looked up in a code book held by both parties. An example is the Popham Numeric Code used at the Battle Of Trafalgar .

in Yacht Racing and Dinghy Racing , flags have other meanings; for example, the P flag is used as the "preparatory" flag to indicate an imminent start, and the S flag means "shortened course".

NATO uses an extra set of flags to communicate specific types of messages.

LETTERS

OTHER FLAGS

SEE ALSO

England Expects That Every Man Will Do His Duty

NATO Phonetic Alphabet

Character Encoding

EXTERNAL LINKS

The flags and their meanings

Freeware to aid memorizing the flags from The Navy Patuxent Sailing Club

Flags Fantastic - Nautical flags (A - Z & Pennant)

''La flag-alfabeto'' - signal flags used for the Esperanto Language . Description: the flags for the esperanto letters with diacritical marks have the lighter color in the normal flag replaced with light green, which is not used in any normal flag.

International Marine Signal Flags

Signalman manual

brief history of naval signals