Popham's flag signal code
Código de señales de banderas de Popham
- Date
- 1800 · confidence high
- Place
- London, England, United Kingdom
- Credited to
- Home Riggs Popham
- Field
- Movement
What it is
A system assigning each word of a vocabulary a number sent with numeral flags hoisted on one mast, rather than only fixed phrases. It let Nelson signal at Trafalgar (1805) 'England expects that every man will do his duty'.
Published as 'Telegraphic Signals, or Marine Vocabulary'; the Trafalgar message had to be spelled out because 'duty' was missing from the vocabulary.
What it led to
- flexible visual communication between ships of a fleet
- Marryat's merchant signal code (1817)
- the International Code of Signals