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Signalling the Mail 1930s
By the 1930s a
method of signalling the impending arrival of a mail
steamer at Aden was still needed, but since that in
force in 1899 described in
Signalling the Mail the system had been made
somewhat more complicated. Those looking out for a flag
hoist would have needed this chart to hand!
In case the reader is unable to read
the wording, I will describe how the system worked.
Looking at the lower table of Post Office Signals, which
were to be hoisted on the P & O flagstaff with the
distinguishing Mail Flag (i.e. one of those in the upper
table) uppermost, one can work out how using two flags
only from the lower table the ETA could be hoisted to
the nearest half hour. If a ship was expected on the
hour the a.m. or p.m. pennant would be above the hour
flag; if it was expected on the half-hour the hour flag
would be on top. A pennant flown by itself would
indicate either noon or midnight, and both pennants
together, depending which was on top, would be either
0030 or 1230. From the Signalling the Mail article one
can see that the Noon pennant was three red and two
white stripes, and the Midnight pennant a white circle
on a blue background. Note that there was also a
‘Tomorrow’ flag (white rectangle on a red background).
This part of the system was unchanged from that in force
at the end of the previous century.
Looking now at the upper table the
key signals were the two pennants: the ‘Mail from
England’ pennant (the Royal Mail pennant), which is the
right-hand one in the third row; and the ‘Mail from
Bombay, China and India’ pennant (three white crosses on
a red background), which is the left-hand one in the
fourth row.
My assumption is that the regular
Royal Mail contract steamers did not also need a Mail
Flag of the company carrying the mail to be hoisted as
well. But all other steamers carrying mail would have
the Company flag hoisted in place of a mail pennant.
Below the examples of Company flags (and also of warship
ensigns of those Navies likely to call at Aden) is a
clarification: ‘The above flags are hoisted at the East
or West yard arm according to direction in which a
steamer is sighted.’ Thus the public could tell whether,
for instance, a Rotterdam Lloyd steamer was inward or
outward bound.
The chart (to follow) shows which Agent (P & O,
Luke Thomas, Cory,
Cowasjee Dinshaw,
etc) was handling the ships of the company concerned.
The reader will have noticed the vertical dark and light
balls alongside the Company flags. This was a
belt-and-braces fallback for when there was still air,
with flags hanging limp and unreadable on the yard arm.
There were not enough combinations for every shipping
company to have a dedicated ball signal, although the
chief ones did.
A word or two about the top row in
the upper table and the small one-row table at the
bottom of the sheet: The latter was for use by vessels
taking on oil rather than coal, and covered useful
instructions like ‘stop pumping’ and ‘pump more slowly’.
The former gave further information of progress, such as
‘vessel entering outer harbour’ plus a necessary ‘port
surgeon required’. The final bit of useful information
was how the daily time check would be signalled (noted
under ‘Times Signals’). The Fort Morbut flagstaff (as
opposed to the P & O flagstaff) would hoist a time flag
(? The noon pennant) at 11.55 daily. In true naval
tradition the executive, i.e. in this case the denoting
of midday, would be the hauling down of the flag.
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