Flag away

[Lou Barron]

This happened on my first trip on the Duchess of Bedford and I thought it would be the finish of my sea career .being a lowly deck boy I was given the job as a bridge boy and I thought this is the start of a brilliant sea career
It was in early 1941 and we was in a convoy of troopships (I have mention this before)and there was a lot of signals with the flags hoisted up
.On the bridge there were two flag lockers on the port and starboard side of the bridge each containing the international code ( I hope I am describing this properly). Anyhow I was given the job of taken out of the locker the flags with the instructions given by the bridge officer and to take out the flag he told with holding the halyard in one hand getting the flag out to clip on the halyard I had one flag on when disaster struck I let go of
the halyard and the wind took it right up to the yardarm .The bridge officers grabbed hold of me and gave me a right bollicking and I burst out in tears and was sent of the bridge .In the next few days I was given the job back after a I was given a lecture on the Do s and Donts

[Keith at Tregenna]

Lou: RE: Duchess of Bedford.

If the same ship.

On the 19th December 1960 she leaves Liverpool for her final voyage to the breaker's John Cashmore of Newport, Monmouthshire, South Wales.

Her Empress bar was taken from the yard became the main bar in my home town at the Barry Hotel, Barry, Glamorgan.

http://www.duchessofbedford.com/

http://www.duchessofbedford.com/gallery_12.htm

[Lou Barron]

Very interesting Thanks Keith

[Ivan Cloherty]

You are not the only one to have done that Lou, remember on the convoys in 1956, even after having some sea time under my belt, it happened to me, as flags were up and down like a bridegroom and in windy conditions trying to keep them clear of the radar and aerials wasn't easy, especially with a run of four and five flags clipped together, can take a bit of strength to keep them under control. Mistakes are the quickest way to learn.

[John Arton]

Flag etiquette has it that flags must he hoisted in the folded position, hence the reason why they are always folded or rolled up in a specific way with the lower halyard turned round and looped through itself so that the flag, when hoisted, goes up in a bundle and only unfurls when you give a tug on the lower halyard. With hoists containing multiple flags this means that you only have small rolls of flags being hoisted until the are unfurled once the whole hoist is up.
This was drummed into me by the first ever Chief Officer I sailed with, an ex. Royal Marine, and if I failed to fold the flags up properly after use so as to enable them to be hoisted correctly the next time, I would get a right bollocking.
Flag etiquette disappeared ages ago and the number of times I have shouted at A.B's and Junior Officers to hoist a flag rolled up and then unfurl it when hoisted, given a pound for each time I reckon I would be a very rich man time. There is something in the back of my mind that it is disrespectful to hoist a flag that is unfurled or is it that hoisting it unfurled leads to it becoming tangled up thus making any signal unreadable?
rgds
JA

[j.sabourn]

I was told a bit different to that john , was that the ensign should never be broken. John S

[Louis the fly]

A good trick I learned as a deck boy.
Put a match stick in the bight of the lower halyard and raise the flag still rolled, when the flag is up pull on the halyard, the match stick breaks and the flag is unfurled.
This worked well in bad weather when battling against the wind.

[Ivan Cloherty]

Flag etiquette has it that flags must he hoisted in the folded position,--unfurled or is it that hoisting it unfurled leads to it becoming tangled up thus making any signal unreadable?
rgds
JA

All very well in some circumstances John, always hoisted single flags in a ball (but never the ensign) but hoisting a fleet of flags requires the flags to be close hauled together, so the tail on the lower part of the flag had to be shortened, so a fleet of flags were never hoisted in balls and then broken out. It may have happened on RN vessels where they had the height on dedicated signal halyards/masts, but on merchant vessels the triatic stay halyards (closest to the bridge and flag lockers) were used and these are normally of a limited length on MN ships. At Suez we were given the 'Watch' by the RN because of our flag etiquette, which means we were the vessel that the RN ships set their flags by our raising and lowering when we rang eight bells in the morning and two bells at sunset.

Nothing discourteous about raising an unfurled flag, the rule was you never let the Courtesy flag or your own ensign touch the deck whilst raising or lowering and had to be extra vigilant in the States, where they set great store by this and the American pilots always kept a beedy eye on you. In the companies I sailed in we always put the house flag and courtesy flag on strikers so that they flew above the truck (even on trampers)

[cappy]

hoes the ciggy job louis

[Louis the fly]

Hi Cappy the fight goes on, winning so far, will not let the habit beat me.