The method of international maritime signal flags was drafted in 1855 as a way of addressing individual letters of the alphabet in signals to or from ships. Flags are used to make communication between ships less difficult by spelling out short messages. A number of the individual flags and various combinations of flags hold special meanings which might be understood by marines. The marine flags are sometimes uses for decorative purposes during ceremonial and festive functions. The system is a recognized and understood code internationally, as a result it is very important that all marines understand exactly how it really works.
As a person in the public the only real time you could see the marine signal flags is at fleet parades or around areas with heavy international shipping traffic, they are an essential point of communication for marines. The signalling flags used are a set of different colors, shapes and markings which used singly or when combined have unique meanings. The set includes 26 square flags with markings on which depict the letters of the alphabet, ten numeral pendants, one answering pendent and three substituters or repeaters.
As only some colors is often distinguished easily on the ocean the system just uses red, blue, yellow, black and white and these are not to be mixed. It is essential that the marine flags are visible at sea so for added clarity the flags are shown are generally a mix of red and white, yellow and blue, blue and white or black and white together with block colours of red, white and blue.
Each of the flags have particular meanings, some are definitely urgent than others while others are utilized more commonly. One-flag signals are usually urgent and two-flag signals are mostly distress and maneuvering signals. The three-flag signals are usually reserved for point of the compass, relative bearings, common times, verbs, punctuation, general code and decode signals. Four-flags usually are used for geographical signals, names of ships and bearings. Five-flag signals relate to time and position whilst six-flag signals are used for directions such as north, south, east, or west in latitude or longitude signals. Last but not least, seven-flags can be used longitude signals that includes a couple of hundred degrees.
Generally the signal flags are not utilized to show complete words, instead each individual features a specific meaning when displayed on its own. There are also two-letter codes to know that are sometimes supplemented with a numeral so there is several combinations that could be made.
The structure of international maritime signal flags is usually a element of the International Code of Signals and NATO uses the same flags, with a few unique to warships, alone or in short sets to communicate various unclassified messages. The NATO usage of the system is likely to generally change from the International meanings and sometimes warships will fly the code/answer flag above the signal to indicate the fact that message ought to be read with the International meaning.
