Naval Signalling

From the Admiralty Handbook of Signalling, 1913:-

Flag Waving may be employed for passing coded and cypher messages from Flag to
W/T Guardships and vice versa; it may also be used for communicating with
the Army, and for private messages between ships. It describes it thus -
'The signalman would stand square (either facing or with his back turned) to
the Station to which he is signalling, according to convenience and the
direction of the wind. The staff should be kept as upright as possible while
in motion, the point never being allowed to droop to the front or rear. The
flag is to be held high enough for the Signalman to see below it when it is
in motion. "Dots" are made by waving the flag through small arcs, "dashes"
by waving it through large arcs. The flags are of two sizes - 3ft square
with a staff 5ft. 6in long, or 2 ft square with a staff 3ft 6 in long - and
of two colours, either white with a blue horizontal stripe, for use with a
dark background, or dark blue, for use with a light background.

Semaphore, on the other hand, uses two flags on staffs, usually diagonally bi-coloured
yellow and red. Many people will be familiar with this form of signalling
from Boy Scout days etc., but naval signalmen had it down to a fine art !
Especially useful when replenishing at sea, either to chat to one's oppos on
the ship alongside, or (perhaps more importantly!), to transmit classified
signals without the need to code them first which would have been necessary
with other means of communication. Ships and shore stations were also later equipped with
'Semaphore Arms' on masts. Worked by two handles at the base of the mast,
these could transmit signals over a large distance.

Another popular means of communication used by Naval signalmen of that era
was by use of the 'Heliograph Mark III'. This was quite a complicated piece
of equipment with sighting vane and duplex mirror and many calculations of
incidence and reflection to be made according to the position of the
signalman to the sun and the receiving station. The range of the instrument
could be calculated by multiplying the diameter of the mirror in inches by
10 to give the distance to which signalling could be carried on in miles.

H.M. ships were fitted with various lamps for signalling according to
distance and whether day or night. The largest were the searchlights powered
by burning carbon rods. These 'Cruiser Arc Lamps' were of 2,000 candlepower,
fitted with a telescope, and could be used for daylight signalling over vast
distances between ships not even in visual sight of each other. Truck
Flashing Lamps on the tops of masts could be used for 'all round' signalling
to more than one vessel at a time. There were also Yardarm Flashing Lamps
for inter-ship communication when in station. The 'maid of all work' was
probably the 10 inch signal lamp. In the event of a power failure they had
Oil Flashing Lamps powered by a burner and wick using mineral sperm oil.
Then there were smaller hand held lamps for signalling at night, acetylene
signal lamps for trawlers, and candle powered boats signal lamps etc. The
signalman had to know how to operate all these lamps and how to service
them. This variety of signal lamps were operated by detachable 'Scott's
Shutters', Venetian Blinds, Shutter and Spring, Disc and Spring, or Morse
Key, and the Signalman had to become dexterous in operating them all. Even
the manipulation of a Morse Key is not as straightforward as might be
imagined, especially over a period of time.

Besides all this, the procedure of coding and interpreting flag hoists,
relaying their meaning to the Captain and maintaining screening charts and
displays, being familiar with the wearing of flags and ensigns, recognising
navigational lights and signals, buoy-age and marks etc., keeping the bridge
card up to date, and a hundred and one other jobs all fell to the
Yeoman/Signalman. "The Signalman knew everything that was going on!", wrote
Henry Baynham in "Men from the Dreadnoughts" (Hutchinson, London, 1976). He
was the "Eyes of the Fleet"... and the "Captain's right hand man".

Baynham writes that the Telegraphist Branch was developed in the early years 
of the century, partly from the Signals Branch. "Wireless was just beginning and the
wireless was looked after by the Torpedo party but the Signalman manned the
sets and the signal boatswain was wild about this because it depleted his
staff and you need all the staff you can get on the bridge at times ...They
decided they would make a Wireless Branch and those aboard had the
option of remaining a Signalman or turning over to the Wireless branch ...
When they passed the test on the Morse code [this would have been reading
it - the Signalmen already knew the Morse code of course, but taking it in
through the eyes is vastly different from taking it in through the ears ] 
then they went on to Wireless training proper" Records were made of 
Morse code which could be played back at various speeds to increase
efficiency.

Both Signalmen and Telegraphists were recruited as Boys. Baynham mentions,
in November 1907, a boy who learned telegraphy when working for the Post
Office being encouraged to join the Navy by a circular passed round stating
that any boy who had done the P.O. exam could join the Navy as a Boy
Telegraphist but "he would have to do three months seamanship" In 1910 he
mentions another boy who "had to do three months in seamanship during which
I had half of each day at school. At the end of that period I had an
examination and only if I reached a certain educational standard could I go
forward in the W.T." He also recounts how primitive W.T.was in those days.
"We advanced considerably before the war up to the stage, but not with it,
of the Bell transmitters. Before that we were on spark transmitters; we used
to call them brute force and ignorance, because they made a tremendous noise
and never went anywhere much." Initial training for the Visual Signalling
branch was on exactly similar lines, recruited as boys, Signalmen had to be
proficient at school work, seamanship, and their own specialisation to become 
a member of the branch - and also had to have very good eyesight of course!

The progression in both branches was similar to the rest of the R.N;
starting as Boy Signalmen or Boy Telegraphists they would advance
accordingly to Ordinary Signalman, Signalman, Leading Signalman, Yeoman of
Signals, and finally Chief Yeoman of Signals.