The abolition of all four-flag hoists for general signals will very greatly increase the Rapidity with which communication can be held by means of the International Code of Signals.
It will also tend to secure another essential in efficient signalling, viz., Accuracy, for every flag added to a hoist affords an extra risk of mistake, both in bending on a wrong flag and in reading off the flags in the hoist incorrectly.
In addition to the gain of rapidity and accuracy of signalling, the inclusion of the eight new flags has, as we have already stated, afforded the means of providing a large number of signals which do not appear in the current Code, and we have availed ourselves of this possibility to the extent of adding some 4,000 new signals.
Moreover, the fact that under the proposed scheme there is a flag to represent every letter of the alphabet has enabled us to arrange for a system of spelling proper names and words not appearing in the Signal Book, which we regard as less cumbersome than the Alphabetical Spelling Table which is at present in force.
These advantages appear to us to be so important that we have not hesitated to increase the number of flags to be used, although the step involved the abandonment of the Code suggested by us in 1889 and the preparation of an entirely new Signal Book.
The letters omitted from the alphabet in 1855 were now added, the objection which had led to their omission on the former occasion being regarded as a "sentimental rather than practical objection," though the Committee took care to eliminate objectionable words as far as practicable.
The flags now added were:
A Burgee divided vertically white and blue
E Pendant " " red, white, blue
I Flag yellow with blue ball