#maritime flag signalling

[clove-pinks]

I'm a little annoyed by that maritime flag signaling article going around—you know, the one written by a novelist, who only seems to have a passing familiarity with the International Code of Signals developed in the later 19th century, and not any earlier maritime flag codes. Of course I'm going to be put out that there's no mention of my very special historical blorbo, Captain Frederick Marryat and his pioneering Code of Signals, but the writer missed the mark in other ways, too.

The limited vocabulary of code books invariably affects what will be communicated. Possibly the most famous set of flag signals of all time, Lord Nelson's message in Popham's Code at the Battle of Trafalgar, was also subject to revision and last-minute edits by the constraints of the code. The choice to spell out D-U-T-Y is a master stroke of meaning.

The writer can't imagine two ships signalling, "Emetic has been given without good results," but we know that all sorts of seemingly trivial conversations were had using maritime flags: including a discussion of spoilers for one of Captain Marryat's own novels! Ordinary people also used Marryat's code, designed for merchant vessels, to exchange clandestine messages in newspapers.

[mattaytchtaylor]

IYKYK

[blue-survey]

This is how I will tell people I have autism.

[infantisimo]

"One mind trying to envision everything that could happen, everything that could go wrong, everything that one ship of humans could ever need to say to another. There is something tender about the tendency toward thoroughness. And then something grave about how the language effloresces, absurdly, into such dark specificity."

[sapphicsundial]

Don’t cry, butch sailors that flag with their maritime signals ok?

[exeggcute]

interesting links roundup #5

reading

A British Nurse Was Found Guilty of Killing Seven Babies. Did She Do It?

A Tick Is Making Farmers Allergic to Their Own Animals

The Big Red Word vs. the Little Green Man

Bringing Up Babies

The Degradation Drug

Does Matt Mullenweg Want a Fork or Not?

The Flying Car Is Finally Here. It’s Slightly Illegal.

How to Talk to People When You Live Alone

I got dysentery so you don’t have to

The invisible seafaring industry that keeps the internet afloat

Kurt Vonnegut’s lost board game finally published

The Pain of Travelling While Palestinian

Personal Best

Rage bait is all the rage on Threads

The Secretive Dynasty That Controls the Boar’s Head Brand

The shady origins of the climate haven myth

Social Media Tells You Who You Are. What if It's Totally Wrong?

We’re not going to run out of new anatomy anytime soon

Who Pays for the Arts?

Works by Pissarro, Renoir, and Avercamp Vanished. Here’s How an Amateur Art Sleuth Cracked the Case

Writing in Pictures: Richard Scarry and the art of children’s literature

tools/reference

An Illustrated Guide to Maritime Signal Flags

If the Moon Were Only 1 Pixel: A tediously accurate map of the solar system

Plotto by William Wallace Cook (1928) [for context, read this]

Snapseed: Android, iOS

These Apps Help People With Disabilities Travel More Easily

other

Euthanasia machine, Australia, 1995-1996

how-i-experience-web-today.com

Reply All #158: The Case of the Missing Hit [I first listened to this years ago but just listened to it again... still soooo good]

Subterranea Britannica

[mariacallous]

Russia—and China—had seemed to benefit from the Houthis’ attacks on shipping in the Red Sea because the militia spared their ships. But it turns out that Moscow has been more than a passive beneficiary. As the Wall Street Journal recently reported, Russia has been providing the Houthis with targeting data for their attacks. Now that Russia has crossed this red line of actively aiding attacks on Western shipping, other hostile states may start sharing military-grade data with proxies of their choice.

One of the U.N. Security Council’s five permanent members is actively supporting attacks on global shipping. It’s a stark violation of the maritime rules, which grant merchant vessels the freedom and right to sail not only on the high seas but also through other countries’ waters and through internationally recognized straits without having to fear, let alone experience, acts of aggression.

The Houthis, you’ll remember, began their campaign against merchant vessels in the Red Sea last November, when they struck a string of vessels linked to Israel, supposedly in support of the people of Gaza. When the United States and Britain, and then the European Union, intervened in support of shipping in the Red Sea by sending naval vessels to protect merchant ships (of all nationalities), the group began attacking ships linked to these countries, too.

And so it has continued. Each month, the group launches a handful of attacks against ships in the Red Sea. Mostly, the Western naval vessels manage to thwart the attacks, but several merchant ships have been struck, and two of them have sunk. But bar a Russian shadow vessel struck—probably accidentally—this May, Russian and Chinese vessels have been spared.

The group has been so successful thanks to missiles and sophisticated drones provided by Iran. Having high-performance weaponry, though, brings little benefit if one strikes the wrong target, and the Houthis lack the technology that would allow them to discern a ship’s coordinates. That’s where, it has now emerged, Russia has turned out to be a most useful ally.

Russian coordinates have thus helped the Houthis keep up their attacks even as Western naval vessels have been trying to foil them. “Targeting covers a wide range of complexity,” said Duncan Potts, a retired vice admiral in the U.K. Royal Navy. “Hitting a static target on land can be as easy as using information on Google Maps. At the other extreme, you have mobile entities like ships at sea. Hitting them requires much higher-grade, precise, real-time targeting data that uses information from different sources. Such targeting is quite complicated even for Western navies.”

Since ships are mobile, the targeting data typically needs real-time information. Though details of the data provided by the Russians are naturally unavailable, it’s highly likely that real-time data is included. Either way, Potts said, “this development is certainly significant and notable, but it doesn’t surprise me.”

The fact that Russia is giving the Houthis specific information about vessels’ exact presence in the Red Sea is making this strategic waterway even more dangerous for Western-linked ships. “If you’re a Western-linked merchant ship traveling through the Red Sea with whatever naval escort is available, you’ll not be signaling your position by using AIS [automatic identification systems, a maritime GPS],” said Nils Christian Wang, a retired rear admiral and former chief of the Danish Navy. “That means the Houthis would struggle to know what ships are arriving and where they are, so this data would be extremely useful.” (Western naval forces in the Red Sea escort vessels regardless of their flag registration and country of ownership.)

It’s not exactly clear what kind of targeting data the Russians have been providing. “The Russians might help the Houthis get the right maritime picture to make sure they don’t hit Russian ships, but they may also be providing data to help the Houthis hit Western targets,” Wang said. “It’s one thing to give data to help protect your own ships, another to give them data that help them attack Western ships.”

Either way, the group’s attacks have already caused a dramatic drop in traffic in the Red Sea and the Suez Canal to the north. Between May 2023 and this May, traffic through the Suez Canal plummeted by 64.3 percent, the Egyptian newspaper Al-Mal reported. The number of ships transiting the canal monthly dropped from 2,396 in May 2023 to 1,111 this May.

Most Western-linked vessels instead sail around the Cape of Good Hope, but this entails an additional 10-12 days’ sailing and a 50 percent cost increase. Only a small number of Western shipping lines and insurers still dare to send their vessels through the Suez Canal and the Red Sea—but Western naval vessels have to remain there to provide some degree of order. In recent months, the Houthis have been attacking these ships, too.

Russia’s provision of targeting data may be followed by yet more support for the Houthis. According to Disruptive Industries (DI), a U.K. technology company that specializes in the closed-source discovery of global risks, there is extensive and unseen Russian activity in Houthi-held parts of Yemen, and there has been for some time. (Full disclosure: I’m a member of DI’s advisory board.)

Sharing targeting data is directly participating in a conflict. That’s why Western nations have refrained from sharing targeting data with Ukraine, a nation defending itself against an invader. In September, Russian President Vladimir Putin himself weighed in on the issue. Western approval for the use of Western-provided long-range missiles that could strike Russia would mean involvement in the conflict because Western military personnel would have to provide the targeting data. “It is a question of deciding whether or not NATO countries are directly involved in a military conflict,” Putin told Russian state television.

By that point, Russia was already sharing targeting data with the Houthis.

“The Houthis’ attacks are certainly in line with Russia’s desire to remove the world’s focus from Ukraine,” Wang said. “One almost gets the suspicion that this is part of a manuscript. It’s so much in Russia’s interest to have these attacks happen.”

Now that the Kremlin has crossed this red line in the Red Sea without being punished for it, it may decide to share targeting data with other nonstate outfits. So may other regimes. Imagine, say, a Chinese-linked militant group in Myanmar or Indonesia targeting merchant vessels in nearby waters aided by targeting data from the People’s Liberation Army Navy. Western governments, shipping companies, and underwriters will need to pay close attention.

For now, the continuing strikes against Western vessels present a massive risk for Western-linked merchant vessels in the Red Sea and the Western naval vessels that are there to protect shipping. And the discovery that Russia is providing targeting data could convince the few remaining Western shipping lines still sending vessels through the Red Sea to give up on it (and the Suez Canal) altogether. One of the oldest routes of modern shipping could be abandoned—until Russia and the Houthis are bought to heel.

[ltwilliammowett]

Shot across the bow

In the 18th century, a warning shot (often referred to in nautical terms as a shot across the bow) could be fired at any ship whose "colours" (nationality) had to be established. According to maritime law, a ship so summoned had to hoist its flag and confirm this with a shot. Warning shots could still be used today to signal a ship to stop or keep its distance, a warning that is still used today.

But you can also get a shot across the bow in everyday life. Especially when someone gives you one - usually verbally - it warns you that your action was not a good one and you should watch what you are doing and stop that behaviour or statement. So this should also be understood as a warning.

[good--merits-accumulated]

very niche thing alert!

AKA: I Translated Todd’s Poem Into International Maritime Signal Flags.

"i love being out autismed" - @desire-mona, 2024

What's an International Maritime Signal Flag? I'm glad you asked! They're flags used to communicate between ships:

The International Code of Signals is a comprehensive guide to what combination of flags means what. Taken together, you can create an impressively large range of meanings with them.

Anyway! Onto the poem:

So I wasn't quite sure where this was going until the last few stanzas, when it became clear that this poem was no longer Todd's monologue but a dialogue between two ships, one sinking and the other unhearing (ignoring? avoiding?). The translation gave it a new dimension - it should be noted that all translations fail to preserve the exact meaning of their source - this one just took it a little farther. The poem became a call to be understood, in the same way that much of Neil's story is a call to be understood; it's misunderstood - the boys laugh - in the same way Neil is misunderstood. That gulf of silence between him and his father, that scene in his father's study where he does not justify himself, may as well be a gulf composed of water.

Both poetry and signal flags are last resorts - they are there to be used if all other methods of communication prove ineffective. They are desperate. There is a desperation, too, to the use of signal flags:

(At Sea, Merritt Tierce)

This film, after all, is about speaking to other people in languages they do not understand. This film is a code. It is coded. So, too, is poetry, and so, too, is translation. Through translation and through code I tell you that I AM HERE, that I WISH TO COMMUNICATE WITH YOU, that I WAS GOOD. I WAS REALLY GOOD. Can you understand me now? Was my act of deciphering still not enough?

(For more signal flag poems, check out Code Poems by Hannah Weiner.)

[uwabbittuwabbit]

in my head these r what miyazaki ghibli pairings map onto what motogp ships:

-rosquez are obviously howl and sophie, which i go more into depth into here. its also important that sophie and howl get into the fight about howl's hair, because sophie ultimately does go back, puts on her business face etc. i think the timeline would work out like, they get into that big argument whatever its about but marc goes back, vale tries to make up for it with the ring and beautifying marc's clothes and eventually the house in the mountains but during that time its like their relationship is completely frozen even though they're living in the same house...marc considers moving out to live with alex etc. just becomes older with his withdrawal because of the curse. And then vale moves the castle to marc's old home. sophie is also like very much obligated to her family as the oldest daughter (which is why she stays in the hat shop) which is very marc! he wants to make his people happy...Also don't tell me fuck ass bob vale DOESN'T scream young howl to you. say it to my face. u can't.

-enea/casey are san and ashitaka from princess mononoke. just imagine the "im going to cut ur throat/ur beautiful" scene with them...i dont think casey necessarily gets cured from the illness that he gets from the corrupted forest god it just becomes part of him, so its no longer killing him after the forest god's head is returned but still ails him. hes from a super far secret civilization and cant go back after being banished (kind of like how u can't fade into obscurity after rising to fame). rides an antelope looking thing and is so so noble. enea is feral and living with the wolves. hates humans. but when this stranger comes and gets shot in his name he can't help but feel something other than that hatred he has felt all of his life. chews casey's food for him and delivers it mouth to mouth when he's too weak to eat...the same mouth that spat out the poisoned blood around the mother wolf's bullet wound. etc.

-cele/bezz r sosuke and ponyo, but they also have the potential to be kiki(bezz) and tombo(cele) and sheeta(cele) and pazu(bezz)...to me cele is sosuke, the weird kid who lives in the house on a hill (alone), signals ships at night just to talk to somebody and flies maritime flags. likes to fix stuff, has a tiny little dinky car. works as a daycare science teacher taking the kids on trips to catch bugs and frogs but also helps out at the nursing home next door, fixing the wheelchairs of the residents and like taking them out for fresh air while the kids tag along. thats summer though and in the winter he helps out at the dock and on fishing boats. he would love you if you were a worm, in short. bezz's misadventures get him stuck in a jar (he could cry he's so embarrassed) but cele finds him when testing his newest like little motorized toy boat prototype he wants to show the kids and bezz IMMEDIATELY falls in love, it's crazy. you bet he licked the blood off of cele's gashed finger just like that. is absolutely INDULGING in the attention he gets when cele brings him in for Show And Tell/Storytime and explains in his pondering voice how he found bezz. gets sloshed on that forbidden magic juice right after getting plopped back home and runs on giant fucking waves as cele commutes home to impress him. all cele feels is like, mild concern like damn do i have to detour home? i would have known if there was some major meteorological event coming my way. when the curly haired stranger with an earnest smile shows up at his home and engulfs him in a hug, he meets it with the same bewilderment but because bezz feels familiar. consequentially is not very impressed or surprised about bezz being a fish loool. i was just picturing the thumbnail of this video the entire time i wrote this and that's literally their whole vibe. that's bezz in cele's tub right there. this post is getting away from me more than it already is so ill like do a quick preface of the other premises...bezz is a witch and his familiar is rubik...flies away to a big city and meets cele with his homemade flying contraptions...gets tattoed for the first time by some random artist in the woods...becomes depressed...can't fly anymore...cele is the last member of a royal family and falls from the sky after being held on an airship, with bezz as the one to catch him...bezz has always wanted adventure because his father was one of the few people to have ever seen the fabled castle in the sky...wants to take his chances with cele...cele's billowing curls and tragic eyes...all bezz wants to do is make him happy...all cele wants is to go home.

-luca/pecco as haku and chihiro from spirited away. their whole vibe is childhood friends that grew apart and then rekindled imo. when they meet in the spirit world luca introduces himself as maro and to pecco he seems familiar; you how it was on a playground when you were young and you knew everything about someone except for their name? so maro it is, and he takes pecco's hand when he cries about his roommates (pecco's in college and ended up in an abandoned places exploration group with them) being turned into pigs and is panicking about not being able to go home and is generally a mess and tells him to get up from where he's been curled up into a ball and run with him to the bathhouse where he gets a job and becomes just pecco, no francesco because his name gets taken away. life is pretty tough for pecco at first and he's very lonely while luca is away doing missions for the boss, which is most of the time. hes also very insecure and fears luca leaving him because he's not good enough. but he puts his head down and slowly earns respect from his peers. starts standing up for himself and becoming more confident, and eventually has his standout moment for completely cleansing a polluted spirit. luca (a river spirit) fell in love with pecco when he fell into him and wasn't able to swim. even though that was very much an embarrassing moment what made it worse were pecco's flailing attempts to keep his head above water, but that was what endeared him to luca. it was his stupidly stubborn will to keep his nose to the grindstone even when it filled his mouth with water and got him nowhere. that is how a river thinks, and luca could never forget pecco's lanky straggling form as he struggled up the banks of the river, wretched and alive but triumphant for doing so.

[clove-pinks]

I couldn't resist the challenge of deciphering this grand lady's signal flags—but she's from 1878, and those aren't Marryat's flags! Or the modern International Code of Signals, either.

Wikipedia has a handy chart of Commercial Code Flags 1857–1900 and that allowed me to read: PHFR [end message in international code]. Red Ensign indicating a British merchant ship.

I couldn't find PHFR in International Signal Code books, not even an 1878 edition, but I suspected it would be the ship's name, as is usually the case for a ship painted with Marryat's flags. Here she is on a Mercantile Navy List, still sailing in 1919! PHFR – Guiding Star of Padstow, on the north coast of Cornwall, built 1875.

Although the auction site incorrectly gives her name as "Guiding Light," her correct name is at the bottom edge of the painting.

[sudriantraveler]

Some Salty Headcanons

I imagine Salty has worked in several places before coming to Sodor, but always by the sea. In fact, I'm just gonna say that Salty was quite the world traveler before coming to Sodor. The dockside diesel has worked in harbors all over the world, and is just as well traveled as even the most experienced of sailors.

Salty’s shed houses an impressive collection of maritime items. There’s a fishing net draped across the entrance like a canopy, and the inside is cluttered with a collection of stuff which rivals even the collections of some museums.

There’s an old anchor, a collection of telescopes, compasses, sextants, and other navigational aids, several shelves of model ships, signal flags festooning the walls, he’s even got a 17th century naval cannon tucked away in the back of the shed!

And several of these items have some sort of story attached which makes them more sentimental than just cool looking souvenirs. One of these is an old ship's helm, which was gifted to Salty by an old fishing trawler who was based in one of the ports he used to work at, and who Salty was close friends with. The ship claimed it was from a former fleetmate and supposedly gave them good luck, they gave it to Salty saying they hoped it would bring them good luck as well.

Barely a week after the old helm was gifted to Salty, the fishing trawler was lost at sea in a storm.

The helm is not kept in Salty’s shed like the rest of his collection. It is instead kept in his cab, so that if it does bring good luck it can help him throughout the day.

[time-being]

hello ! you might have already answered this but what does the flag in your pfp indicate? thank you for your time :)

That's a fun question, and I haven't answered it!

It is the International Maritime Signal Flag for J / "Juliet"

The interpretation as a signal flag is: "I am on fire and have dangerous cargo on board: keep well clear of me."

[medealikethesorceress]

As a classical student, I find it fun to try to think of what attributes ancient artists might give my favourite characters today if they were to depict them in art to distinguish them from one another. Here are some things I'd think to give the Austen heroines:

Catherine Morland: Book (obviously)

Elinor Dashwood: A stoic-looking mask. An abacus to symbolise her sense, alternatively.

Marianne Dashwood: Horse (a reference to Willoughby's present as well as her marrying the military man Brandon) A paintbrush/instrument to symbolise her sensibility, alternatively.

Anne Elliot: Something maritime. Maybe a model ship, a signaling flag, a spyglass, etc.

Emma Woodhouse: A mirror (fairly obvious symbolism)

Fanny Price: Theater binoculars (a reference to her comparatively passive and observational role in the story as well as her refusal to participate in the staging of Lovers' Vows)

As for the Bennets, I'll be honest and say that nothing really came to mind. I couldn't think of any major props nor anything to symbolise them as characters. I'm sure it exists though.

Please let me know if you have more ideas!

[ttomuras]

okok lemme just…start sth

so i was wondering what this flag was in the background of the new volume cover, right?? because i thought it was weird (if there is a flag like this in the mha universe feel free to tell me but i wouldn’t know). so i was doing some research and looking around

and those where the only ones that showed up where the colours were in the right order (you could argue that maybe the flag is hanging down but the white stripe is significantly larger than the other two so i do think it’s hanging correctly and just cut off at the corners.)

and obviously most of those don’t really make sense except of maybe the maritime signal flags, which are flags that are used to communicate with ships. and the tango flag (red white blue) does kinda have a ??? suiting meaning?? which is “keep clear of me” or local time??

(why would he be using maritime signals tho?? idk if that would make much sense?? like what ship are they communicating with??)

anyways then i was thinking that because of the chair they are sitting on, the flag does remind me of another one in the upper list of possible flags because see…

it does look awfully close?? but??? wHY WOULD HORI CHOOSE THE FLAG OF A PROVINCE IN ARGENTINA??? does nooot make sense

either way i have no idea what this flag means or if hori was just feeling funny but for some reason i really i really want to know

[flagwars]

People’s Flag Wars 2: Round 2, Bracket 5

See the symbolism below.

Carmel, Indiana is a flag redesign by scottishdoge.

Symbolism:

“Blue: Good Fortune and Prosperity

Gold: Happiness

White: Peace and Balance

Star: Ode to the original name of the city: Bethlehem

Design: Carmel is the Roundabout Capital of the US, so I wanted to use the roundabout design as a significant flag feature. On the reverse side, the lines (or lanes in this symbolism) are reversed as well, a subtle nod to our international influencers--who drive on the other side of the road--that have helped the city become more progressive in our ideas and lifestyle. The crossbar with a star in the middle is an ode to the Indianapolis flag, and the off-center, enhanced circle resembles the original design by Roger Gohl.”

Portland, Maine is a flag redesign by Flag For Portland.

Symbolism: “Portland's connection to the sea remains a strong part of our shared identity, even if maritime trade no longer dominates the economy. The symbolism of a safe and secure port to ride out a storm is meaningful in any era, but the events that inspired this flag are the times this community has rallied to overcome challenges both historical (rebuilding after devastating fires) and contemporary (rallying to support front-line workers and local businesses during the pandemic).

Influenced by: the "Papa" flag, a blue border around a white field represents the letter "P" in the International Code of Signals. The "Vessel at Anchor" flag is one of the original signal flags used by Lemuel Moody, builder and operator of the Portland Observatory to communicate between ships, owners, and dock workers during Portland's maritime heyday.”