Nautical Flags meanings

[Galium]

Can anyone help with understanding the meaning of the flags shown flying from the ship in this picture?  (It's a 19thC painting owned by a family member.)

[martin hooper]

https://www.allstarflags.com/facts/signal-code-flags/?srsltid=AfmBOoraJA5QgpVcYhOoL8lMmAgYv_48ACsEsf2N_brwPC7tx8cI3gtr

[Galium]

Thank you, martin hooper.  My apologies, because I should have explained a bit better than I did.

I know that the flags can stand for letters of the alphabet - so from the top down it would read P - M - ? - W

The red pennant doesn't seem to correspond to anything on any chart I have seen.

As it is a painting, possibly commissioned by the ship owner I'm guessing that the flags are intended to say something about that rather than sending a message - which for the first two flags would be: "all personnel return to ship"; "my vessel is stopped, making no way", and for the last "medical assistance required".  Which would be a bit odd to put in a painting meant to show off your lovely ship.

I was wondering whether the flags represented the owner/owners' name/s.  (The ship's name is 'Chilena')

[KGarrad]

I think you need to refer to the Commercial Code flags in use 1857-1900, rather then the International Code of Signals which came into effect in 1901.

On that basis the flags were P, M, F, W.

See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Code_of_Signals where there is a chart of flags.

[AlanBoyd]

According to this image:

https://c8.alamy.com/comp/J829MP/19th-century-illustration-signal-flags-pilot-flags-flag-signals-J829MP.jpg

The pennant could be an “F”. But the lower part of the image indicates that combinations have specific meanings.

[KGarrad]

Reading an article on the Commercial Code, I saw this:

Four-flag combinations with B (red burgee) uppermost were geographical signals; with the pendants C, D, or F uppermost they were vocabulary (phrases, words or spelled-out words) signals; with G uppermost they identified warships; and with any square flag uppermost they identified merchant vessels.
https://tmg110.tripod.com/sigf_2.htm

[Galium]

Thank you KGarrad and AlanBoyd.  That is most helpful. So it has an identification purpose.

I have just found this list:
https://www.rootschat.com/links/01tqk/

which shows that the Chilena built in 1876 had the code P M F W.  Which is useful in distinguishing it from an earlier ship of the same name.

(But doesn't yet explain why the picture has been passed down in my family.  That line were mariners, but I haven't found any of them crewing the Chilena at any time.)

[BushInn1746]

The launch it seems? ...

Sunderland Daily Echo, 11th April 1876

Ship Launch on the Wear. —The barque Chilena was launched from the yard of Messrs. Doxford and Sons, Pallion, on Saturday. She is the property of Messrs. Tomlinson, Hodgetts, and Company, of Liverpool. The vessel is 180 feet long, 30 feet broad, and 19 feet in depth, and is a very fine specimen of marine architecture. As she left the ways the usual ceremony of christening was performed by Miss Margaret Eveline Doxford, daughter of Mr William Theodore Doxford. The vessel made a splendid launch, in the presence of the builders, and also of Captain Davis, who is to take the command of the ship, which he inspected in the course of construction. This is the second ship built by Messrs. Doxford and Sons, for the same firm, and is intended for the West Coast trade.

 ----------

Added: See the 1893 Obituary Notice found by Rootschatter Hanes (top of p.2) re Captain James Davies.

[hanes teulu]

1st appearance in Lloyds Register.
https://archive.org/details/HECROS1877/page/n247/mode/2up

You can track it here in subsequent years (click on year of interest) -
https://www.maritimearchives.co.uk/lloyds-register.html

Also, cannot beat online newspapers to track activity