An Account of the Convoy Drill (Signal) Book

Abstract

Relations between merchant marines and their brethren in state navies were not always cordial, which Mead illustrates by means of extracts from a convoy escort signal book of 1804. The signals were based on standard numerical flags and a number of ‘extras’, both rectangular and triangular (pendant). By displaying a given range of flags the convoy commander could identify a specific vessel and issue orders to its master, with signal 45 illustrating the antipathy between the services, as it instructs the nearest escort to “Fire a-head of the Ship whose Signal is shewn here”.

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Filed under: Atlantic | Napoleonic War
Subjects include: Administration | Merchant Marines | Miscellaneous | Navies