SAILORS AT WESTMINSTER

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 30, 5 February 1927, Page 20

SAILORS AT WESTMINSTER

TO "KEEP THE FLAG FLYING."

Not everyone who has seen the Houses of Parliament in London will have noticed that, rising above the big Westminster Tower at the opposite end to Big Ben, is a tall flagstaff, on which, all the time that Parliament is sitting, a Union Jack is kept flying. Hew even of the people who pass it every (lay are aware that a special staff of exsailors live in the Tower, and that it is their duty to "keep the flag flying" when the Houses are in session.

This is by no means the simple task it might appear. The Victoria Tower is nearly 300 ft high, and the flagstaff itself some 120 ft long, so that a very large flag has to be used in order .that it may be plainly visible from tho streets. Then, in windy weather, there is considerable difficulty in hauling the big Jack up and down.

The smallest size of flag used is 18ft by 9ft, which would cover the floor of a small room, and this is reserved for specially stormy days. On one historic occasion, which tho present staff of the Tower will seldom mention, this Jack and the tackle on which it is hoisted got so tangled round the flagstaff by the wind that it could not bo hauled down. Then an old sailorman, who had been used in his youth to running up the tall spars of windjammers, went hand-over-fist up a guychain of "the flagstaff in a tearing gale and straightened out the mess. That's a "way they have in the Navy." Since then two hauling-tacklcs have been fitted, so that if one gets tangled with tho staff the other may bo used The biggest Jack is 36ft by 24ft, and two medium sizes are kept—24ft by 12ft and 18ft by 12ft respectively. Anyone looking at these flags from the pavement would find it hard to credit their actual size.

Every tear or fray has to be inonded immediately, for such flags as these are not cheap. There is a special room in the Tower where they aro taken as soon as thoy show signs of damage and in this room they are mended with charaoterißtis sailor/a jygtaeas.