Learning about Pilot Flags

It pays to have two dictionaries at hand.

The old one will tell you what the words you run across used to mean.

You need the new one to tell you what people are saying that words mean now. Strangely enough, meanings change so much and so often that the best we can do is say what “usage” says they mean.

My old dictionary says that a pilot flag is one hoisted at the fore by a vessel coming into harbor and desiring a pilot.

It was a “plate” of colored pilot flags that got me interested in flags at all.

Curious as to how a newer dictionary would define pilot flags, I looked it up in the list of definitions starting with flag and found no mention of pilot flag anywhere.

Now why would that be, I wondered.

Not every ship’s captain can be familiar with every harbor his or her ship may berth in

Surely every ship always needs a pilot in harbor, so why would one generation need a pilot flag in foreign harbors but not our generation?

Just guessing: Could a good system of radio or radiotelephone take its place?

Rain, fog, snow, darkness, smoke could all interfere to some extent with the usefulness of pilot flags on the bows of ships coming into harbor.

Alternatively, the captain or other official could radio from some distance out at sea and alert the director of pilots that a pilot would be needed on a ship arriving soon.

The information about pilots, pilot flags, and flag codes is very interesting and not something one hears about just every day of the week, but as I ought to have foreseen, it is a whole, complete, well-thought-through language and body of knowledge all its own.

In addition to pilot flags in various shapes and designs, navies and even NATO have their own systems of flags.

This is too much to try to learn without serious study.

One thing I did learn is what to call a flag shaped sort of like a car-lot pennant but with two tails instead of one.

That’s a swallowtail flag. An answering and divisional flag, for example, is that shape; the use was not explained.

The more I looked at the sources, the most interested I became in the many aspects of communication at sea and the more randomly I read about some of those aspects.

Most flags are rectangular, square, an isosceles triangle, or a swallowtail shape.

Such a thing as a Z flag exists. It’s divided diagonally into quarters as isosceles triangles meeting in the middle, yellow on top, red on bottom, blue on your right, black on your left.

It is the only flag in the naval maritime set of flags in four colors. It has a complicated history and a special meaning in Japan, owing to its association with a decisive naval battle a hundred years ago.

A side issue of colored signal flags, perhaps important, perhaps minor, is, must all mariners have normal perception of colors?

What about color blindness? Could that be a hazard in certain circumstances? Once again, radio contact would be a way around such a hazard.

In the alphabet of signal flags, when the ship is in harbor, a blue square with a white square in the middle means the same as Amtrak’s cry, “All Aboard!”, but more formally: “All persons should report on board as the vessel is about to proceed to sea.”

This is an exciting moment at the beginning of a voyage.

A certain red and white design of squares means, “You are running into danger.”

Several flags and combinations of flags have to do with medical emergencies at sea.

Foresight and experience have made official such messages as, “I need passengers removed from my ship,” “I need medical advice,” “I need a doctor; I have severe burns,” and more ominously, “I need a doctor; I have radiation casualties.”

A ship in a harbor might need to fly a black and yellow flag meaning, “The ship is quarantined.”

Wouldn’t those on shore dread seeing a ship flying this flag?

An all-yellow flag carries a happy message: “My ship is healthy. I request free pratique.” Pratique is “permission to do business at a port, granted to a ship that has complied with quarantine or health regulations.”

The condensed messages conveyed by flags reminds me of text messages, whose brevity I thought was a new thing under the sun.

It is wonderful to see how ships from all over the world can peacefully share information they all need at some time or other.