It is a practical necessity that all connected with the sea should understand the use of the International code, therefore, the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty require that all Royal Naval Reserve men who act as Masters or Mates of ships should be instructed in its working, and the Board of Trade makes like requirements from all candidates for Masters' or Mates' Certificates. Its International character is a most valuable feature, as by its use two captains, say a Dane and a Greek, or a Russian and a Spaniard, who, on the quay, could not comprehend a word of each other's language, can at sea, by this common flag-language, come to a perfectly clear understanding of each other's need, or impart any information required. It is the only code used at the signal stations around our coasts. Lloyds' have thirty-three of these signal stations at Dover, Beachy Head, Lundy Island, Dungeness, Flamborough Head, St. Catherine's Point, North Foreland, and other conspicuous points on our line of ocean traffic, and abroad again at Aden, Ascension, Gibraltar, Bermuda, Honolulu, Suez, Perim, Malta, Teneriffe, and elsewhere, and here too, the International is the only code recognised.
This "Lloyds," that we may see daily referred to in the newspapers, is a Corporation that, amongst other marine business, distributes shipping intelligence. A Mr. Edward Lloyd, in the seventeenth century, kept a coffee house in Tower Street, which in time from the daily gathering there of merchants, captains, and others interested in marine affairs, became a centre for shipping and underwriting news and business. In the year 1692 it was moved to Lombard Street, and in 1774 the coffee supplying part of the business was abandoned and rooms were taken in the Royal Exchange. During the wars with Napoleon, the Government was often indebted to the Committee of Lloyds' for the earliest information of important events all over the world. Lloyds' has its agents in every port, and by its complete organisation and the potent aid of the telegraph, the shipping business of the world is brought day by day before us. Vessels spoken far out on the ocean are reported by the vessel that spoke them immediately on its arrival at any port. Thus a sailing-vessel journeying from London to Vancouver may be five months or more before it touches land,
but during that time it is sighted by other vessels from time to time, and these report having seen it, and that all was well on board. So the mother knows that her son, who is parted from her by thousands of miles of ocean, has got thus far in health and safety; and the owners of the vessel learn that their venture has so far surmounted the perils of Cape Horn and the other dangers of the deep. The good ship is drawing nearer at each report to the end of her long voyage, and on arrival at last off Vancouver, as the land is sighted, the signal flags run up once more to the masthead, the news of her coming is flashed across continent and ocean, and the London newspaper of the next morning contains the brief notification that far exceeds to anxious hearts all else of interest its broad pages may contain.
Familiarity, though it may not necessarily breed contempt, dulls the sense of the wonder of it all, and yet how marvellous it is! We have before us the Standard, that came into our hands about seven o'clock this morning, and we find from it that yesterday the Glenshiel had arrived at Hong Kong, that the Arab, from Cape Town, had just put in at Lisbon, that the Sardinian, from Quebec, had reached Moville, that the Circassian was safely at New York, that the Orizaba, speeding on to Sydney, had at 2 a.m. passed the desolate shores of arid Perim, that the Danube, from Southampton, had at 6 a.m. entered the harbour of Rio Janeiro. Of this, and much else of the same tenor, may we read in a space of a quarter-column or so of the paper as we sit at breakfast and see pass before us a panorama of world-wide interest and extent; and to accomplish this result, the flags we have figured have been a potent factor.
Though we have covered much ground, it must have been patent to all readers who have thus far companioned us that much detail was necessarily omitted, unless our book had to grow to the dimensions of an encyclopædia. It would probably, for instance, take some fifty figures or so to give all the distinctive flags of the various government departments, official ranks, etc., of a single Great Power. We trust nevertheless that while our labours have been by no means exhaustive, they have been instrumental in showing that there is much of interest in flag-lore, and that an increased knowledge and appreciation of our subject may be one result of our pleasant labours, and prove full justification for our work.
INDEX.
A.
Aargau, flag of [116]