THE PENDANT.
The Pendant is a well-known flag in ships of war. It is of two kinds, the long and the broad. The first is a long, narrow, tapering flag—the usual length being twenty yards, while it is only four inches broad at the head. An Admiralty Memorandum regarding the history of our flags bears that the origin of the long Pendant is generally understood to have been this:—After the defeat of the English fleet under Blake, by the Dutch fleet under Van Tromp, in 1652, the latter cruised in the Channel with a broom at the mast-head of his ship, to signify that he had swept his enemies off the sea. In the following year the English fleet defeated the Dutch, whereupon the admiral commanding hoisted a long streamer from his mast-head to represent the lash of a whip, signifying that he had whipped his enemies off the sea. Hence the Pendant, which has been flown ever since. This certainly has been the popular tradition, and the English admiral may, on the occasion referred to, have adopted a flag of the description and for the purpose mentioned, but it was not altogether a new form of flag. In the Tudor MS. we find a description of a long tapering flag of somewhat the same description. It is called a Streamer, and is appointed to "stand in the top of a ship or in the forecastle, and therein is to be put no armes but a man's conceit or device, and may be of length 20, 30, 40, or 60 yards, and is slitt as well as a guydhomme or standard." From this description the streamer would appear to have been a personal flag bearing "the conceit or device"—crest, badge, or motto—of the owner.
As now used in our navy the long pendant is of two colours—one white with a red cross in the part next the mast; the other blue with a red cross on a white ground. The first is flown from the mast-head of all her Majesty's ships in commission, when not otherwise distinguished by a flag or broad pendant. The other is worn at the masthead of all armed vessels in the employ of the government of a British colony. (See Plate III. No. IV.)
The broad pendant or "burgee" is a flag tapering slightly and of a swallow-tailed shape at the fly. It is white with a red St. George's cross, and is flown only by a commodore, or the senior officer of a squadron, to distinguish his ship. If used by a commodore of the first class it is flown at the main top-gallant-masthead. Otherwise it is flown at the top-gallant-masthead.
SIGNALS AND OTHER FLAGS.
Signal flags are those which are used for communication between ships at sea. In the system instituted by James II. intelligence was communicated or messages interchanged by a confused number of flags exhibited at different parts of the ship. Now, signalling has been reduced to a complete system. The flags are of various shapes and colours, each flag representing a letter or number, and by a recent arrangement a universal code has been adopted by which vessels of different nations can now communicate.
A flag of truce is white, both at sea and on land, but on board ship it is customary to hoist with it the national flag of the enemy—the white flag at the main and the enemy's ensign at the fore. On one occasion during the war in 1814 when the French frigate Clorinde was about to be attacked by the British frigate Dryad, the commander of the former, being desirous to ascertain what terms would be granted in case he surrendered, hoisted French colours aft and English colours forward. Under cover of this the French frigate sent a boat with the message. The answer was a refusal to grant any terms, but the boat was allowed to return to the French frigate in safety before the Dryad filled and stood towards her.
The Ensign and Pendant at half-mast are the recognised signs of mourning. Sometimes also it is an expression of mourning to set the yards at what seamen call "a-cock-bill," that is all the yards topped up different ways on each mast; but this is chiefly done by foreigners, who, on Good Friday and other occasions, set their yards thus. It is also customary as a sign of mourning to paint the white lines of a ship of a blue colour. In older times, when ships were more gaudily painted and gilded than they are now, they were painted black all over as a sign of mourning.