The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1866-11-09


Mercantile Marine. The Board Of Trade
determines what shall be the official num-
Der of each ship, but the Commercial Code
determines how to express this number by
letters and flags The Talavora Of Liver
pool, sailing vessel of 437 tons, may change
owners, or may change ports; but she will
always, as long as she remains on the Regls-
ter Of British Shipping, be the Talayera ];
she will always have the 9,999, and this
number will always be represented by the
flag signal X L ON. The Clara Of Glou-
cester, as another instance, whether she
changes owners and ports or not, will con-
tinue to be the Clara, with the number
1886, and the signal L 3 K W.
livery signal flag representa- letter, anu the
new Code has eighteen cons0nant letters repre-
sented by an eqnsl number Of flags. Showing not
more than four flags at a time, there are nearly
they may be arranged. Bchoolhoys will uuder-
stand this when they bear in mind their famous
problem about the persons who sat down to din
ner in different order every day and lock plckers
will understand it when they count up the mill
justed live were to add the groups of five flags
~ q time, the number Of psrmutations would be
more than million. The authorities have
agreed that 80 600 will be enough for all praotlcai
purposes and there can actually be nearly 10 00o
different and distinct signals made by mesns Of
eighteen flags, never more than four Tags hoisted
at q time. The flags are OF three different shapes:
tie square Aag, about feet by 6; tue burgee, a
square flag with sort OF notch IN the front ont edae; ;
aud the pendan triangular strip Pefa 10 test long
widely in color and pattern red al over, ared
SPOT on white ground, blue and white stripes.
two vertical stripes OF blue and yellow, blue
cross on q white ground, a white square spot on y
blue ground, blue square spot on. white
ground, two vertical stripes Of red and white, q
white GROSS on blue ground, vertical stripes or
rad. white and blue, and so on. Each flag has al
ways the same symbolic meaning thus pen
dant or elongated triangular nag, ~1.h "a req sp9s
on white ground, always means o; but What
means, the Code or Vocabulary determlnes.
The committee appoint ed by the Board Of Trade
reported that any good code Of signals should
''afford q ready means OF making known TO signal
stations, or when ships pass each other at sea,
progress and where. bouts maybe correctly re-.
p,rted ;of communicating at sea the wants and
wishes Of masters or captains and OF extending
the means OF intercourse to the vessels OF all ouln-
tries, by the establishment OF an 1nternatlonal a
code of signals" Accordingly, the $4,000 possible
cmbinutious above advtrted to are made avala-
Die for large budget OF sea gossip. There being
eighteen flags, there may be eighteen signals Of
one flag each, and it il arranged that these shall
signify euct useful little words aB Yves, ""No,"
&c. The groups of two flags each amount to Two
or three hundred varieties, and furnish many Zig
nails useful on spboard such, for instance, as at
teltinn anu demand signals, OF which 'shOw your
ensign.' and "Pay attention" ara examples; sig
las 20 denote the points OF The coulpass, and sig
nss nails of distress on rliphoArd, such ns ''on dre,"
..Fire gains rapidly Sc. The groups of three
flags each furnish yaristies amounting TO some
thousands III numoe1 ;"dant n
ab .l.donmont Of ship, ship aground. capszMg,
collision. dismasting, epringing leak, water-lOg-
ging, Gc. then a series relating to news, news
papers, le,ters, Dispatcher, mails and the like
next series OF questions aud information con.
cerping crew, captain and passengers then anoth-
gr r. lating to ships place, ships reckoning, nau-
lioal instruments, observations and the like; then
= series uf short phrases bearing relation to
ships fittings provisions, engines, and boilers,
and lastly, another concerning anchorage, sound-
nae. liphts, landmarks. buoys, beaoons, ptlotage,
s.rerinp. It'd rs. currents, and other matters rela
tino to the coming If ship to harbUr-all these
Expressed BY hoisting three flags, varying in
shane color, pattern aud arrangement. The
groups Of four flags are. however, the most I'M
Something lik 70,0UOin number. Here 1t is that
W. And the official numbers Of ships symbplizsd-
aipns lIy which wr may Identity every ship III ID"
British Emp,re, whether belonging to the Ro, 81
Navy or - ssryice no Ka @ as w.
her :nnd after they are satisfied, there are MANY
Thousand un appropriated groupings OF f,ur d .ss,
ava,iahle for signaling other mutterB relatluB to
sl,i.e and their employ oyment There are thp
l,ames Of places, islands, seas, neadidnds, &c oil
nyer the world there IL u very extensive vocabl-
lar, Of, wor.s, phrases aiitl semtences us fu III
maritime mttt-1s; and there ls llsi ot snort
syJis bles, available in the construction OF words
not in the vocabulary. Aud thus IT IL that aone
meaning or other s nttaolird to alrn"st every pos
sible combinatiun VI The naSs, LII groups oI one,
two, thrt O. "r four each
Rnt ID r.ay bo asked hnw do the sailors, cap
taIns and hlpnalmtn know tho exact meaning Ot
every com 'unatlun Ut flags Can They colImlt
10 200 signals ana comhlii4tiUnt TO mrm ry Az
.nredly nut 10 assist them, a O,.nmeroiai Ode
of signals haa been prt pared, i'll an o., avo volume
Every f .g, according to Its shape, Dlor aud pat
,ern. represeu's particular letter every group
of suc!, .gs represents particular group ~ let
terr snd every group GI letters us paf,ira;1r
CLus, 10 refer.uce to shlp's stTes, l., the
narAg. or three particular h.ss disposed IN H!'ar-
tcular way, always deuoto ''tes > aud 3 @,
.sueAr." la lation TO other m.ltrs, ~
~onld be 3 stsrtlng combination Ut swo h'g iof
Il donotts 30, fire.; y while N P deuntte sire
vains nj lly :" whereas N @ gives the information
fir. c,ultl fr extiugui-llen with imte !ate AL.
lct us supps h It tWo ship. meetat sea. y Q
Lo,sty no fuur flags L. o,llspialou. posi- ion Oh
,,le OF tue M IS y +; The fi.Rs bo.ny srrauge1 ia
,r y,rtioai m row. o read dowuwards; TIL. slgnalm",'
IN the other ship notices that the u9purm st
Us x h1 rpsnrsens paa ss h etssr aa M that hat the
q .n her three repr.sent W aud R respectively
He ,hus gets 1t the fact that the s'lps signal is
- Nv s D 4; and by referring to tho oeao-b.a' he
dnds tins to correspond with the lumber ~, 2O2,
The official number OF the ship Lanpliehter,
pumber that belongs to no other SUP whatever.
An far Us n sea telescope render tie flags dis
tinct. 90 far does This power extend OF ascertAin-
inp si,ip'. name und at the same tiue her port
n ana tonnage, and other Items ais, en bred in the
Register. The shlp Lamp,ghter IN q similar way
he he, proce.d with their go.sip each telling the
v,hvr vi encv sue came aud shither slp is goin2,
md u,yiny aud receiving information USEFUL to