NELSON'S FAMOUS SIGNAL

Star (Christchurch), Issue 9306, 5 August 1908, Page 2

NELSON'S FAMOUS SIGNAL

♦_ „ — _ v THE CORRECT REPRODUCTION, The British Admiralty has decided 1 that in future the official reproduction of Nelson's historic signal from the Vic--1 tory on. the day of Trafalgar, October 1 21, 1805, shall be changed. This is ' consequent-^pn a discovery that the more modern representation of the signal, euch as that generally used three , years ago, when the centenary of Tra- . taiga* was celebrated, and annually shown at the Royal United Service In-' ', stitution in "Whitehall and at other ; places in England on the anniversary of ! the great fignt, is incorrect. , Mr W. G. Perrin, the Admiralty . Librarian, is responsible for tho new light on tho subject. He announced > his discovery in a letter to " The , Times" on May 13. On June 3Dr Macnamara, First Lord of the Ad- [ miralty, replying to a question in the . House of Commons, said: — "A signal- [ book has been unearthed, which makes • it clear, in the opinion of the Board, [ that the flagp used down to 1885 cor- . reatly reproduced Lord Nelson's signal. I The alteration made at that time ap- , pears to have been unwarranted; hence the reversion to the older and correct r flags." Probably this is a simple explanation of the matter. There was no new issue ; of the signal-book between 1799 and .' 1808, although a change was made in the numerical value ot the- flags of the ; code in 1803. That change was duly recorded, and promulgated to the fleet, and tradition subsequently became responsible for th© actually correct reproduction of the signal. By 1885, the ! , basis of this tradition was generally forgotten, no doubt, and as somebody had discovered, on tho evidence of the print* ' ed page, that th© newer value cf the flags was not published until 1808 (when \ t tho change actually made in 1803 was first committed tp print in the signal- , book), it was concluded that tbe value s &s given in the signal-book of 1799 , must have still existed on October 21, t 1805, and a change was made accordingly. : It fell to Mr Perrin to find, in the \ library of the Royal United Service In- ' etitutioa, a copy of the signal-book of- 1 1799, bearing the date- NovieinbeivS, 1803, and in this book " the numerioal values of the signal flags have been altered by a 6lip pasted over the originals, and the altered flags coincide with f those afterwards given in tho 1808 editions of the signal-book." i Further research showed, to £he satisfaction of the Admiralty, that the order I for the change was made on November i 4, 1803, and that Nelson conveyed the ; intelligence of^ the change to his fleet in a memorandum dated January 16, i 1804. The reason for the alteration was i that the Admiralty had " reason to bei lievo that by the capture of the Red- . bridge schooner in the Mediterranean, a great part, if not th© whole, of the private signals used on board H.M. ships had fallen into the hands of the 1 enemy." Says " The ' Times " :— " The change was effected by altering tho numbers i signified by the flags. Thus the flag, ' which in. 1799 had beori 1/a flag with i one red and two yellow stripes horizontal) became o; the well-known Blue Peter, which had been 0. became 2 ; and so c-n, tho signification and value d every flag being altered. The change carried out was as follows: — 2 became 1; 0 became 2 ; 7. 3; 5, 4; 1,5 ; 9, 6; 3, 7 ; the first subtitute becoming 8 ; 8 became 9 ; 6, 0 ; 4 became the first substitute ; and tho second substitute alone remained as it had been in the old-er book.'-' There were thus 12 flags in the The change did not the us© of the ' ' Telegraphic Signals and Marine Vocabulary" produced by Sir Home Popham in 1803. The word " England," for instance, was still represented by the numerals 2, 5, 3, but the flags" which denoted those numerals were changed.