used by every ocean going craft ?

[Ivan Cloherty]

Hi Guys
I've attached a flag signal from an oil painting of my Great Grandfather's ship. Can anyone read it or maybe suggest who to ask?
Kind Regards,
Gareth

Gareth

The flags shown in order from the top are from THe International Code of Signals (ICS)

the letter "P"
Pennant number "2"
letter "N"
letter "S"

every ship was issued with a four flag sequence to identify it, normally they consist of four flags rather than flags and numerals, the first letter flag usually referred to the country of registration. It used to be a "G" or an "M" ( or a "P" in the old days) for ships registered in the UK.

in addition to having their own flags, a sequence of four flags could show a destination, as this would be in the ICS book, a three flag sequence would show a point of the compass, a six flag sequence could show a latitude or Longitude, there were and are hundreds of combinations in the ICS book covering all foreseeable eventualities.

But I would guess that the P2NS are the signal letters of identification used when the ship is too distant to read the name.

Others may be able to advise further

Regards

Ivan

[Ivan Cloherty]

Hi Gareth

I responded to your enquiry on 2nd May, unfortunately it did not appear in "New Posts"" which is where you may have looked, the flags from top downwards are P 2 N S, a full explanation can be found on my post of page 8 of "Ask the Forum" under the Forums section

Regards

Ivan

[j.sabourn]

what is the flag shown as my avatar here indicating? this one still used today and as far back as anyone here can remember happy hunting lads terry.

Used to be before it was changed to what has already been said. "I am undergoing a speed trial" J.Sabourn