Flags at sea
Main article: Maritime flags
Flags are particularly important at sea, where they can mean the difference between life and death, and consequently where the rules and regulations for the flying of flags are strictly enforced. A national flag flown at sea is known as an ensign. A courteous, peaceable merchant ship or yacht customarily flies its ensign (in the usual ensign position) together with the flag of whatever nation it is currently visiting at the mast (known as a courtesy flag). To fly one's ensign alone in foreign water, a foreign port or in the face of a foreign warship traditionally indicates a willingness to fight, with cannon, for the right to do so. This custom is still (2004) taken quite seriously by many naval and port authorities and is readily enforced in many parts of the world by boarding, confiscation, and other civil penalties.
In some countries yacht ensigns are different from merchant ensigns in order to signal that the yacht is not carrying cargo that requires a customs declaration. Carrying commercial cargo on a boat with a yacht ensign is smuggling in many jurisdictions.
There is a system of International maritime signal flags for each numeral and letter of the alphabet. Each flag or pennant has an additional meaning when flown individually.
Flag Design
Flags are usually rectangular in shape, but may be of any shape or size that is practical for flying. Named shapes include pennant (and double pennant), swallowtail, triangular or swallowtail burgee, gonfanon and oriflamme. Common designs on flags include crosses, stripes, and divisions of the surface, or field, into bands or quarters - patterns and principles mainly derived from heraldry. A heraldic coat of arms may also be flown as a banner of arms. An example is the U.S. state of Maryland, or the Republic of Kiribati. Writing is common on some flags - for example, state flags of the United States, or revolutionary flags of the Soviet Union - however, the practice is generally deprecated, because the writing is hard to read on the reverse of the flag, and sewing the same design on both sides often makes the flag too heavy to fly properly.
Unusual flag designs include the non-rectangular national flag of Nepal (vaguely in the shape of two stacked triangles) and the square flag of Switzerland. Also unusual are flags with a differing design on either side, as demonstrated by the national flag of Paraguay and state flag of Oregon in the U.S.
The Use of Flags in Sports
Because of their ease of signalling and identification, flags are often used in sports.
- In American and Canadian football, referees use flags to indicate an error has been made in game play. The phrase used for such an indication is flag on the play. The flag itself is a small, weighted handkerchief, tossed on the field at the approximate point of the infraction; the intent is usually to sort out the details after the current play from scrimmage has concluded. In American football, the flag is usually yellow; in Canadian football, it is usually red.
- In auto and motorcycle racing, flags are used to communicate with drivers. Most famously, a checkered flag of black and white indicates the end of the race, and victory for the leader. A yellow flag is used to indicate caution requiring slow speed and a red flag requires racers to immediately stop. A black flag is used to indicate penalties.
- In Association football (soccer), assistant referees carry small flags along the touch lines. They use the flags to indicate to the referee potential infringements of the Laws or who is entitled to possession of the ball that has gone out of the field of play, or, most famously, raise the flag overhead to indicate an offside offence. Officials called touch judges use flags for similar purposes in both codes of rugby.
- In addition, fans of almost all sports will wave flags in the stands to indicate their support for the participants. Many sports teams have their own flags, and in individual sports, fans will indicate their support for a player by waving the flag of his or her home country.
Alternate meanings for "flag"
- Colloquially, a flag can generally mean an indicator, as in a "red flag" (a sign that something is amiss -see its use in auto racing).
- In computer programming, a flag is a variable used to indicate a true or false (Boolean) value. More specifically, in computer engineering a flag is a bit in a special CPU register, which is used to indicate the existence of a condition such as arithmetic overflow.
- See also flag (mathematics)
Related topics
Bibliography
- William G. Crampton; The World of Flags; Rand McNally; ISBN 0-528-83720-6 (hardcover, 1994).
- Ultimate Pocket Flags of the World; Dorling Kindersley; ISBN 0-7894-2085-6; (1st American edition, hardcover, 1996).
External Links
Source | Copyright
A flag is a piece of