One of our recent customers is related to Sir Hayes and retold his story. We thought it was just too amazing to pass up! Sir Bertram Fox Hayes was captain of several White Star Line ships including the Adriatic during 1912 when he returned the surviving Titanic crew members following the NY investigative hearings. He was also the captain of the Olympic from 1915 through the early twenties and carried troops from the US and Canada to France. As a Captain in the Royal Naval Reserve, he was promoted to Commodore (first time a merchant officer ever received that honor). Hayes was employed by the White Star Line beginning in 1889 and retired in 1924 from the command of the Majestic (formally Bismark) the largest liner at that time in the world. When in command of the Olympic, he rammed and sank the "U-103" in the English Channel in May 1918. The Olympic was carrying 5,000 American troops and he was "knighted" for his efforts. He also was awarded the gold lifesaving medal from France for saving the crew members of a French cruiser that had sunk in the Med. during WW1. (this actually saved him from a court martial as he shouldn't have stopped the Olympic to save them. But that's another story). He authored a book (his autobiography) called "Hull Down: Reminiscences of Windjammers, Troops and Travelers". See his history here. and picture/awards. He also testified at the Titanic Inquiry.
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On 29 March 1912, 79 crew members signed the ship's log to become official crew of the TITANIC for her sea trials.
Have you ever heard that and wondered what it meant? Well, it has to do with buoys in the shipping channels. In the simplest terms, it means to keep the red buoys in the right side (starboard) of the ship when returning from port. Pretty simple...until you throw in some isolated danger marks, safe harbor buoys, private buoys and the elusive "mail buoy" (more on that some other day). Sometimes buoys are not used and "day boards" or "day markers" are used and sometimes you can only see a shape of a buoy. Then what? I like to use this phrase to remember about buoys: "Even Red Nuns Return to the Right Triangle". Hmm...OK, lets break it down. Even - this means that red buoys (the ones you keep to starboard) use even numbers. Green buoys use odd numbers. Red - same as we described above. Nuns - strange as it may sound, nuns here mean the shape. Red unlit buoys sometimes form a "nun" shape which is a tapered top, as opposed to "cans" used for green marks. Return - on the way home. Right - on starboard. Triangle - now this is where day boards come into place. Triangle shapes are placed on poles (in shallow water) to guide ships in. Green markers are squares. Got it? That is until you decide to go to another country that has this reversed! (hint: they also drive on the other side of the road). I'll talk about IALA A & B later on!
On March 25, 1912, TITANIC tested its lifeboats for the British Board of Trade. Also, the first captain (temporary) of TITANIC signed the ship's the log book as master. But, Captain Herbert J. Haddock would not serve as the permanent master. He would later be replaced by Captain Smith.
On March 20, 1912, TITANIC was to leave port for her maiden voyage. However, she never did. Her first voyage was delayed and rescheduled due to her sister ship, RMS OLYMPIC, needing repairs after her collision (September 20th) with the British warship HMS HAWKE. Workers and material were diverted from the TITANIC to repair OLYMPIC. One wonders if TITANIC's earlier voyage dates would have allowed her to safely transit her original course free of icebergs.
Here is an interesting article about the Titanic wreck site mapped for the first time.
![]() The Italian flag is another flag based on the French tricolor. First used in 1796 (only 6 years after the French adopted theirs), this flag was used in northern Italy after Napoleon annexed the area. Red and white come from the flag of Milan and the green from the uniforms of an early guard force. Italy did not become a united country until 1861 under the reign of King Victor Emmanuel II. It took until 1870 before Rome was annexed and became the capital. Since King Emmanuel was of the House of Savoy, those arms was placed in the white field until 1946 when Italy became a republic and the arms were dropped. Very similar to the Mexican Flag, which was used as far back as 1821, the differences are lighter shades of colors, different proportions, and most noticeable, the lack of any seal or device on the white when used as the national flag. At sea, things get complicated as a seal is placed on the white stripe of the Italian flag, thus making it hard to distinguish a Mexican ship from an Italian. However, considering the two countries are quite a distance apart, I'm sure this does not happen too often. ![]() The flag of the Republic of Ireland was adopted in 1920 and based on the French tricolor (there are actually a great deal of national flags based on the French flag - due to the ideasl of the French Revolution and simplicity of it). The flag was first used in 1848 by the Young Ireland nationalist movement in their fight against British rule. The green is for the Catholic, Gaelic, and Anglo-Norman peoples where as the orange (William of Orange) signifies the northern Protestants. White is put between the two colors in the hope for peace. The flag used before this flag was the traditional green flag with a gold harp. On the flag of the United Kingdom (of Great Britian and Northern Ireland), a red saltire ("X") represents the Cross of St. Patrick and indicates the admission of Ireland into the kingdom. Proportions of this flag is 1:2 so technically all those 3:5 flags we fly for the day are incorrect! We thought we would begin with the meaning of "signal flags". Sounds like a good start! The International Code of Signals are a series of colored flags and pennants flown from ships to indicate a variety of things: from current operations, intentions, and medical assistance requests. They are broken down into three main categories: one flag signals, two flag signals, and three flag signals. People often believe that the flags "spell" out things and although sometimes you do "spell" out items, they are not really used in that matter. First, its an international code, so if you spelled out words it could get confusing to other countries. Second, you would quickly run out of flags and need a huge flagpole if you had to spell out every word! I've seen people do it though and its a bit funny as well as a bit unprofessional as well. No, the flags have specific meanings when flown in certain orders. Sailors in other vessles can look up the signal and see what they mean. Although in modern times, sending signals can be done in quicker methods, signal flags are still flown from ships and in some cases, it is required if the ship is performing certain functions. In future posts, we will go into more detail about these flags and how to use them.
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