Technoviking said:
RN Submarines fly the "Jolly Roger" at times.
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Following the introduction of submarines in several navies, Admiral Sir Arthur Wilson, the Controller of the Royal Navy stated that submarines were "underhand, unfair, and damned un-English" and that he would convince the British Admiralty to have the crews of enemy submarines captured during wartime hanged as pirates. In response, Lieutenant-Commander (later Admiral Sir) Max Horton first flew the Jolly Roger [two flags in fact] on return to harbour after sinking the German cruiser Hela and the destroyer S-116 in 1914 but the Jolly Roger was not generally flown by submarines until the next war. In World War II it became common practice for the submarines of the Royal Navy to fly the Jolly Roger on completion of a successful combat mission where some action had taken place as an indicator of how successful a submarine had been.
Flying the Jolly Roger continued on into the 21st century: Amongst others, HMS Conqueror raised the flag with a red bar to recognise her successful attack on the Argentine cruiser ARA General Belgrano during the Falklands War and HMS Turbulent flew a flag carrying crossed tomahawks (representing the launching of Tomahawk cruise missiles) on returning from a 2003 Iraq War deployment. Canadian, Australian, and others occasionally fly the Jolly Roger to represent a successful mission.
Symbols on the flag indicated the history of the submarine, and it was the responsibility of the boat's personnel to keep the flag updated. The Royal Navy Submarine Museum (which possesses fifteen original Jolly Rogers and is well worth visiting if you’re in Gosport) recognises 20 “official” symbols:
- A bar denotes the torpedoing of a ship: red bars indicated warships, white bars represented merchant vessels, and black bars with a white "U" stood for U-boats.
- A dagger indicated a 'cloak and dagger' operation: typically the delivery or recovery of shore parties from enemy territory.
- Stars (sometimes surrounding crossed cannon) stood for occasions where the deck gun was fired.
- Mine laying operations were shown by the silhouette of a sea mine: a number inside the mine indicated how many such missions.
- A lighthouse or torch symbolised the boat's use as a navigational marker for an invasion force.
- Rescue of personnel from downed aircraft or sunken ships was marked by a lifebuoy
Interestingly submarine service was considered unofficer-like due to the dirty conditions and hands-on work. Officers were discouraged by their surface brethren who referred to it as ‘The Trade’ and thus not befitting an officer and gentleman. The name was adopted by the submarine community and has stuck ever since. The poet Rudyard Kipling explained it as a manifestation of the old Victorian snobbery of looking down on “trade”, which was still pretty well entrenched, and engineering was “trade”. Submariners, even members of the executive branch, had to be more than a little competent engineers, hence they were involved in “trade”, and so, by implication, below the salt. All this was said in a good-humoured manner, but there was just the tiniest bite underneath it all.
Here’s Kipling’s famous nod to the submariners:
‘The Trade’
THEY bear, in place of classic names,
Letters and numbers on their skin.
They play their grisly blindfold games
In little boxes made of tin.
Sometimes they stalk the Zeppelin,
Sometimes they learn where mines are laid,
Or where the Baltic ice is thin.
That is the custom of "The Trade."
Few prize-courts sit upon their claims.
They seldom tow their targets in.
They follow certain secret aims
Down under, Far from strife or din.
When they are ready to begin
No flag is flown, no fuss is made
More than the shearing of a pin.
That is the custom of "The Trade."
The Scout's quadruple funnel flames
A mark from Sweden to the Swin,
The Cruiser's thund'rous screw proclaims
Her comings out and goings in:
But only whiffs of paraffin
Or creamy rings that fizz and fade
Show where the one-eyed Death has been
That is the custom of "The Trade."
Their feats, their fortunes and their fames
Are hidden from their nearest kin;
No eager public backs or blames,
No journal prints the yarn they spin
(The Censor would not let it in! )
When they return from run or raid.
Unheard they work, unseen they win.
That is the custom of "The Trade."
~ Rudyard Kipling
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