In the mid-2000s the Headmark journal started to reproduce old photographs of the RAN to illustrate how the Navy had changed. The Spring 2007 edition showed the Navy’s semaphore apparatus in use.
Visions From the Vault
The second half of the 19th century witnessed something of a communications revolution at sea with the introduction of flashing light using the code developed by Samuel Morse. Other means of visual signalling were also trialled, and around 1874 the first ships of the Royal Navy were fitted with mechanical semaphore. This system evolved from a French invention and involved the use of a post fitted with mechanical arms which could be positioned to form various angles, each representing a different letter of the alphabet. By 1880 it was realised that the position of the mechanical arms could be replicated by signalmen using hand flags, and this became the standard means of conducting short-range semaphore.
The mechanical semaphore, usually positioned on the bridge wings or flag deck, remained in use in larger ships of the Commonwealth navies until finally withdrawn in 1943. Throughout this period it remained a convenient means of providing accurate, reliable and covert communications between ships in company. Semaphore signalling using hand flags ceased to be used as a formal communications medium in the RAN on 24 November 2005.
