Essex crystal brooch with signal flags, late 19th century
The technique is interesting because the reverse technique of the cut crystal was used here. In this case, a piece of mountain quartz crystal was cut into a convex shape and then polished into a cabochon shape. An image is carved into the flat side of the crystal and then hand painted. Viewed from the front, the image appears almost three-dimensional. The signals here are those we know today as the international signal flags.
I couldn't resist the challenge of deciphering this grand lady's signal flags—but she's from 1878, and those aren't Marryat's flags! Or the modern International Code of Signals, either.
Wikipedia has a handy chart of Commercial Code Flags 1857–1900 and that allowed me to read: PHFR [end message in international code]. Red Ensign indicating a British merchant ship.
I couldn't find PHFR in International Signal Code books, not even an 1878 edition, but I suspected it would be the ship's name, as is usually the case for a ship painted with Marryat's flags. Here she is on a Mercantile Navy List, still sailing in 1919! PHFR – Guiding Star of Padstow, on the north coast of Cornwall, built 1875.
Although the auction site incorrectly gives her name as "Guiding Light," her correct name is at the bottom edge of the painting.
The next morning, at daylight, the blue Peter was hoisted at the foremast, and the gun fired as a signal for sailing; all was bustle—hoisting in, clearing boats of stock, and clearing the ship of women and strangers.
— Frederick Marryat, Percival Keene
'Spartan – 38 guns' (detail) by William Paget, 1821
“Terror is signaling, sir. Captain Crozier requests an ice report.”
Is he? Let’s have a look at those flags. They do seem to say “Ignorance of the ice” i.e a request for an ice report. Just another example of the details hidden in this show.
The flags look like Marryat's, which was a flag system used primarily for commercial vessels. The flags represented numbers and the numbers could correspond to ship names, geographical locations, sentences or words. These were all listed in the Marryat’s signal book (bibliography under the cut).
Note: TE stands for Telegraph, seems to indicate the start of new number sequence
Problem: The British Royal Navy used the Popham’s system which was invented in the late 1700′s and most famously used by Nelson at Trafalgar (”England Expects That Every Man Will Do His Duty”). I would expect Terror and Erebus to use that system not Marryat’s. However, I could not find the revised Popham’s from the 1820′s for comparison. It definitely does not appear to be the 1806 version. Anyone with expertise here, please chime in!
Fun fact: Marryat’s code for Terror was 241, Erebus was 694
Works consulted:
Universal Code of Signals
https://books.google.com/books?id=jGEBAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&q=#v=onepage&q&f=false
British Flags: Their Early History, and Their Development at Sea; with an Account of the Origin of the Flag as a National Device
By W. G. Perrin
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/46370/46370-h/46370-h.htm#Chapter_VIc
Admiral Popham Telegraph Signal Book 1806 (actually someone's MS Word transcription thereof- bless)
http://3decks.pbworks.com/f/Admiral%2520Home%2520Popham%2520Telegraph%2520signal%2520book%2520Final%2520edition.pdf
Signals and Instructions 1776-1794 : with addenda to vol. XXIX / edited by Julian S. Corbett.
Great Britain. Royal Navy
Navy Records Society, 1908.
Midshipmen and Quarterdeck Boys in the British Navy, 1771-1831
S. A. Cavell
Copyright Date: 2012
Published by: Boydell & Brewer, Boydell Press
I read that as “I require a hug” at first, and now I wish that was a flag too
Here you go!
Unfortunately, I feel this flag could be confused in bad weather with “I require a tug,” thus leading to a very bad time for some poor signal midshipman.
But a signal midshipman’s life is full of woe. At least now they can signal that they need a hug?
