USE OF NEUTRAL FLAGS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XL, Issue 12536, 6 May 1915, Page 3

USE OF NEUTRAL FLAGS.

A TRICK OF WAR. SEA STORIES OF THE UNION JACK' According to von Tirpitz and Co.. who have for months past been chewing the cud of repose on the peaceful bosom of the Kiel Canal, it is quite proper for German cruisers and minelayers to fly a neutral flag in making raids on British merchant ships, but it is altogether improper for British ships to adopt the same tactics. Hence the recent frothing at themouth of the German geniuses, on British ships flying Dutch and American Hags when in neutral waters. As a matter of tact the using of neutral Hags is one of the most common tricks of war: but, although a hostile ship may steam up to another hostile ship while flying the colours of a friendly nation, she must not fire a .shot until she has shown her true colours, as such a proceeding is contrary to the rule of war. Thus, when the notorious Emden in the course of her meteoric career steamed up to the Russian cruiser with the .Japanese flag at her peak, and was so able to take the latter by .surprise the British newspapers said it was a perfectly legitimate proceeding.

One of the smartest tricks in the way of false colours was that performed by Lord Cochiane in 1800, when commanding the Speedy. He approached a ship which turned out to be a Spanish warship ten times larger than his own vessel, and discovered his mistake when too late to retrea't. He promptly hoisted Danish colours, however, but the Spaniard, who was looking for the Speedy, was too wary. He sent a boat to board Coehiane's ship,, and the. first glance around the vessel would have revealed ail. As the beat neared the Speedy, however, Cochrane hoisted the fearful' yellow, or plague flag. The boat., therefore, stopped at a safe distance, and in reply to questions, a Dane on board the Speedy replied tht they had sailed from Algie'rs, where the pestilence was raging. This satisfied the unsuspecting Spaniard, and with courteous good wishes he sailed away ! A little later Cochrane, who had been in the meantime captured by a much larger French warship, was, while a prisoner, the witness of a very aggravating incident during a sea fight near Gibraltar. One of the Kiiglish ships, the Hannibal, was run ashore by aeident, and she was boarded and captured by the French, who, not having one of the'ir own flags with them, hoisted the Union Jack upside down. This was seen from Gibraltar, and the English commander there naturally took it" to be a signal of distress, not knowing that the ship had been captured by the French. So he despatched boat after boat full of dockyard workmen to the Hannibal, and as 'boat ' after boat arrived their occupants were taken prisoners bv the delighted French! A trick in the old days, when ships ns:-d to fight vard-arm to yard-arm, was to seize the enemy's flag, thus making the etnemv's crew think that their officers had ordered a surrender. The famous Admiral Hobson. who ran away to be a sailor when he was a boy, distinguished himself in such a feat soon after being taken on board a warship. He was on board the admiral's ship, which, on the French squadron being met, engaged a largesized enemy. During the conflict young Hobson clambered along the rigging of his own ship into the rigging of the enemy's ship, the two vessels being locked together, seized the French flag, and carried it back to his own vessel. On seeing the capture, the British tars - shouted "Victory!" The French, crew, not seeing their own colours flying, fell into confusion, thinking their ship had surrendered, and during this state of "funk," the British boarded and captured the French vessel. Needless_ to say, young Hobson was the hero of the day. In the battle of the "Glorious First of June. 1794," the British ship, Marlborough, had the whole of her colours shot away by the enemy, and this resulted in several English ships firing into her by mistake, under the impression that she was French. The British sailors on board were angry to think that the admiral would imagine, from seeing no flag, that the Marlborough had surrendered, and one man, named Appleyard, loudly exclaimed: "The English colours shall never be dons'd where Tarn!"' Then, casting his eyes round the deck, he perceived the dead' body of a marine. He instantly stripped off the dead man's red coat, stuck it- on a boarding pike, and raised it in the

air. swearing, as an old chronicler says, '"that the Englishman would not desert, their colours, and that when all the red coats had none they would hoist bine jackets!" Tile honour of the British ling is dear to an Knglish sailor. During an attack on some Turkish shore batteries in 1840.. which had to be abandoned owing to the enemy's works being found 100 strong, it was discovered when retreatinc. that an English Hag bad been left behind. It could still be seen Hying on the wall on which it had been planted. An officer and seaman, Lieutenant Grenfell and Boatswain Macdonald. of H.M.S. Cyclops, volunteered to fetch it. and they did «o under a heavy lire from the enemy. When they returned to the «hips. the rigging of each was manned in their honour, and three thundering rounds of cheering were given.

One of the most stirring incidents in connection with the Union Jack took place in 1770. when Admiral the JCaii of St. Vincent, then almost unknown as Captain • lervis, was in command of the frigate Alarm in the .Mediterranean. One day, while the frigate's boat was at the mole, or jetty, at Genoa, two Turkish slaves suddenly jumped into her .stern sheets, and enfolding themselves in the. British colours flying there, exclaimed : "We are free!" The. Genoese officer on duty ordered them to be loreibly removed, and in the struggle the poor slaves tore off a portion of the. flag. When Captain Jervis heard of this, he fairly boiled over. He sent an "ultimatum" to the Genoese authorities demanding that the. two slaves be brought on board, with the part of the flag torn off, that the officer of the guard be punished, and that an apology be. made on the quarter-deck of the Al;>nn, tinder his Britannic Majesty's colours, for the outrage offered to the British nation. All this was actually done, yet the only thanks Jervis got from the British Admiralty was a public censure! When the British and French are once more allies, it is worth while recalling a pleasant incident which occurred during the battle of Navarino, 1827. When H.M.S. Talbot was unequally engaged with several Turkish ships, the French frigate Armide gallantly bore up to her assistance. The French captain dexterously took his ship through the inner Turkish line, without interrupting the fire of the. British warship, and then poured such a heavy broadside into one of the" Turkish frigates that the latter at once struck'her flag. On taking possession of her prize, Captain Hugon, of the Armide, hoisted on it the Union Jack along with the.French flag, to intimate that he had only completed what the British had begun —an acknowledgment which gained him the thanks of every British sailor. Later in the battle, the Armide was likewise relieved from a dangerous situation by a British ship.. H..M.S. Rose. Talking about, the use of the American flag, by the way, the present occasion is not the first on which it has been flown on British ships. When the battleship Formidable was launched at Portsmouth in 1898, the platform which Lady HicksBeach performed the ceremony was decorated with both tho Union Jack and the Stars and Stripes—the United States, then being-at war with Spain. Her ladyship wished "Success to the Formidable, and all who sail in her." Alas! the Formidable was recently sunk by a German tor pedo, and many were drowned. And as many American merchant ships flew the Union Jack during' the war, to deceive any Spanish cruisers that might be about, America can hardly raise any strong objections to British * ships using the Stars and Stripes when necessary.