Paper flag sheets that come with the old Revell ship kits

Found mine (unused) from my Gato-class submarine USS Growler. On this sheet are: WW2 German (for U-Boats and German Battleships), British White Ensign (for British warships), 50-star and 48-star US Flags, the US Coast Guard flag (for cutters and icebreakers, I suppose) and a set of signalling flags, each one representing a letter of the alphabet. Perhaps they expected builders to use the signal flags to "monogram" their ships, putting their initials or nicknames in the rigging! If you want a parts number, it's F7480.

Stephen "FPilot" Bierce/IPMS #35922

weren't the loads of flags and pennants for dress up?

I never did (never actually finished a ship) but I have seen them decked out thusly.

Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.

Yeah, I always have at least some flags on a completed ship model- at least the national ensign. They showed various flags under various conditions.

With merchant ships they flew few flags, but almost always the national flag. If they were a part of a merchant fleet, generally each fleet had a flag design, and that was flown too.

Naval ships had signal flags in addition to the normal flags. In addition to the national flag, if an admiral was on board, his flag was flown (as in the term "flag" rank). This continues to present day.

Flags are used to signal many maneuvers or indicate ship status information, among other uses. The publication "International Code of Signals" (HO 102)shows what flags are used for what purpose.

It's true that for ceremonies in "Dress Ship" we used to use all the flags in a particular order.

V/R,

Mike

There were many utilitarian uses as mentioned above. Each ship has a call sign. The ones I can remember are NTAW (they always start with an N) for the current carrier Enterprise, NJBB for the battleship New Jersey & NBMO for the Missouri, & these call signs were hung from the yards. They would also fly pennants for various evolutions like if a harbor pilot is aboard.