Ships and the Sea

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 89, 14 April 1923, Page 12

Ships and the Sea

ORIGIN OF .THE FLAG. To many it way be a shock—certainly it will be a surprise (remarks "The Syren")—to learn that the first sustained attempt at detailed investigation into the history of the flag at sea was made wide'?,.the patronage of the German Admiralty by, a German admiral; and that Vice-Admiral Siegel's _"Die Flagge," published in 1912, was the first book to oeal With the developmeat of the flag at sea in: 'a scientific spirit. However, accordingr to Mr. W. G. Perrin, autho* of "British Flags, their early history and their development at sea: with aD account, oi the origin of the flag_ as a> natkmil' device," the word flag is de- - nvadVjfrora :iho middle English.flakken —tp ;fiy—rtlie.Ayord itself being onomato■poetio; that 'is, suggestive of' the sound of sbriiething napping in the wind. After much research, Mr. Perrin, has decided that there is no record of flags flown on English ships earlier than,the thirteenth century. The ■ invention .of' the; banner of arms, however, about' the middle oi the thirteenth century provided_a ready means of distinguishing the nationality, port of origin, or ownership of a vessel at. sea, and its. ues tor that purpose is indicated in a number of seals of seaport towns • dating from about 1250. Coming to more recent history; it is related, that when, Drake and Hawkins set but ph. their last voyage in : 1594. they,were provided with four flags with Her Majesty's Arms at 60s each; 30 flags of St; George, at 16s 8d each; three streamers with Queen's badges in silver and "gold costing' £8' each; 80 other streamers at 15s each, and 26 ensigns. Th« total cost of ihese flags was £221, a very large; expenditure indeed, : when the values -then current are considered- Th» author thinks' that from the fourteenth, century onwards, English ships not belonging'to the King or the nobility flew, the flag,of St. George, if they displayed any at all, and by the end of. the sucteenthcentury the use of the Royal Anns had. become confined to the Admiral of .the. Fleet, and-the flag of ■ St. _ George, had' taken the lead as the. distinguish-! ing-characteristic of English ships, both msn-of-war and merchantmen. When James I. came to the throne he was faced with a, difficulty as to the rival claims of the Cross of St. George and the Cross of St. Andrew, and in 1606 he issued a "Proclamation ■- ■ declaring what flags . South and North;. Britaina shall bear at'sea." This curious document ran as follows:—"Whereas boim . difference has' arisen between- our subjects of South and North Britain, tray- | elling by sea, about the bearing of their[flags, for the avoiding, of all such con-, fentions hereafter, we have with the ad-l vice of our couucil ordered that from •henceforth all our subjects of'this Isle and Kingdom of Great Britain and-the members- thereof shall bear in their maintop the Eed Cross, commonly called St George's Cross, and the White Cross, commonly called St. Andrew's Cross, joined together, according; to a loim. made by our Heralds and sent by us to cur Admiral to he published to our said subjects. And in their foretop our subjects of South Britain, shall wear th» Red Cross only as they- were wont, and. . our subjects of North Britain m their foretop the White Cross only, as they were accustomed. Wherefore we will and command all our subjects-,to be conformable and obedient to this our order - and that from henceforth. they do not use to bear their flags in. any other sort., as they will answer the contrary at the; erilv''^:'--^-BIGVSHIPS.;:^-:: ■ When the s.s. Leviathan commences her work in the North Atlantic passenger trade in July'next, there will be five vessels ranging fronr4s,ooo to 56,000 tons which will niake the port of Southampton their European terminal. ■■ These ships are the Majestic, Leviathan, Berengaria, Olympic, ; and Aquitama.. With regard to-vessels of this size tlie question of . dry-docking • facilities is of »reat importance. Three of .the vessels named are German built, and provision was made for dry-docking them at Hamburg by building- a floating dock. This structure was- surrendered to Great Britain after the war, and the White Star Company offered the Government £100,000 for it. ' The sum demanded, I liowever, was £200,000, and as this was considered far too high, the negotiationa ( fell through, and then the British Gov-i eminent sold, the dock to'the Germans for £40,000! The Trafalgar Dock at Southampton, after a little extension, is now capable of accommodating vessels of any size except the. Majestic and leviathan. This question of dry-dock accommodation for. super-ships emphasises the fact that the range of selection of ports with dry-docking facilities for the. largest type of Atlantic liners is comparatively limited. The; Majestic has a length between perpendiculars of 915 ft gin; a beam of 100 ft lin; and a depth of 58ft 2in. The Leviathan is 7ft or Bft shorter, but 2in more in beam. In order that such ships can be comfortably drydocked, it is obvious that the graving dock" will have to be in excess of those dimensions, except in the matter of I depth. With regard to the latter, there j will certainly have to be a little more ! than 40ft of water on the cill to -,tak« them without risk. FRENCH EXHIBITION. ' A floating exhibition of French commercial products is at present being organised by a French .society. The vessel to be utilised is the steamer Batavia, formerly belonging to the HamburgAmerica Line, and now laid up at Marseilles. Built at Hamburg in 1899, the Batavia is over 500 feet in length, and has a gross tonnage of 11,514. She will be renamed Terre de France, and is expected at Havre shortly to be fitted out. She will leave Havre in June for the following ports : Lisbon. Casablnca, Madeira, Dakar, Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Santos, Bio de Janeiro, Bahia, Pernambuco, Trinidad, La Guaira, Port au Prince, Havana, Vera Cruz, New Orleans, Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Quebec, and Montreal. A stay of from four to fifteen days will be made in each port, the whole cruise lasting eight months.- There will be a practical sales organisation on board, and the rapid transmission of orders will be specially arranged, for. PROPOSED CANAL ROUTE. The latest project for a ship canal does not strike one as very, feasible (states the "Shipping World"). .Oldtime mariners well knew the difficulty of rounding Cape Horn, and .would have been glad of. an easier way. Yet it is | \doubted if many mariners would choose \ j the solution offered by Professor Rodriguez del Bujto, of Argentina. He proposed to cut a canal from the Gulf of St. George on the Atlantic side about latitude 46deg. South, across Argentina and Chile to the Gulf: of ' Jenas, about - latitude 47deg 30in S. Part of' the course would be through Lake Buenos Aires, which is about 1600 ft. above;sealevel, lying' on the border line between the two countries. The length of the course would be : somewhere about 600 miles. As an engineering feat, the scheme may not be impossible, but considering the length and the number of -locks necessary to- bring a vessel to- the level of Lake Buenos Aires, it is doubtful if there would be any saving com-^ mercially in bringing a ship-from the t Atlantic to the Pacific, or vice versa.) by this.route.. It almost appears to Vti a case where, in-spite.of Euclid's positive, assertion to the contrary, two sideo of.' a triangle are shorter than the third.