Nautical Flag

The flags are of great importance at sea or sea port. The difference between proper and improper use of the flags is similar to the difference between life and death. Thus because of their importance the rules and regulations for flying flags at sea or sea port are strictly enforced to follow. The nautical flag are also known as ensign and majority of ships usually fly its ensign along with the national flag. If the national flag is not flown over a ship, and it enters the foreign water or foreign port, only with the ensign flag, it is considered as willingness for fighting. Though it is very old custom, but still taken very seriously by many naval of many countries and post authorities and is strictly enforced to follow. Nautical Flags are using international coding system to signal two ships or to signal the shore. Therefore the Nautical Flag meaning is synonym to signaling flags.

The different combination of flags, with respect to color, shapes and marking the meaning of nautical flags also change. Nautical code flag can be used alone or in combination with others flags to change the meanings for the in coming or out going ships. Some time the US Marine flags are used none officially as Marine signal flags. It is not allowed to fly US Marine Flag on a ship. Nautical flags are made up of the combination of 26 square flag which represent the nautical flags alphabet set, 10 digits, one answering pendant and 3 substitutes or repeaters. Only few colors can easily be recognized at sea. These colors are red, blue, yellow, black and white, and therefore cannot be used in combination indiscriminately. To make the recognition easy the nautical flags are red and white, yellow and blue, blue and white, black and white, along with plain red, white and blue. It is must for the sea ships concerned people to know all about the meaning of every nautical flag or nautical code flag at sea in case of any danger or breakdown of communication systems such as radio or satellite communication. The meanings of different combination of these flags are presented here.

• One-Flag signals are use for urgent or common signals.
  
• Two-flag signal are use in case of severe pressure of trouble.
  
• Three-flag signals are for points of the compass, relative bearings, standard times, verbs, punctuation and also general code and decode signals.
  
• Four-Flag are used to give information about topography of the existing place.
  
• The purpose of Five-Flag signals is to relate time and position and is also called maritime signal flags or international maritime signal flags.
  
• The usage of Six-flag signals is to indicate north or south or east or west latitude and longitude signals.
  
• And finally the usage of Seven-Flag is longitude signals containing more than one hundred degrees.

Some nautical flags are also used for nautical racing which signal to the competitors what they are to do in a particular time and place. A few examples are presented here for providing meaning of international coding system of nautical flags.

1. A: Alpha (Diver Down; Keep Clear),
2. B: Bravo (Carrying Dangerous Cargo),
3. C: Charlie (Keep Clear),
4. E: Echo (Altering Course To Starboard),
5. F: Foxtrot (I Am Disabled),
6. G: Golf (I Want A Pilot),
7. H: Hotel (A Pilot On Board)
8. I: India (I Am Altering Course To Port)

The miniature nautical signal flags pictures can be easily downloaded from internet. Nautical flags are also available in market and the detail information about the Nautical flags is also available on internet.