'Dipping' of ensign

[KellysEye]

I've dipped our ensign and always got a dip back.

 

[[3889]]

I've tried it maybe half a dozen times with French and British warships and never had a response. I'm sure I'll get over it eventually. Meanwhile, I'll no longer lie awake wracked with guilt over failing to comply with 'tradition'.

 

[KINGFISHER 9]

Dear old Eric Hiscock was a great believer in flag etiquette .... which reminds me, I must re-read them ... wonderful stuff from a bygone age and if you haven't seen the old TV programme it's now on YouTube. Fantastic!

 

[[3889]]

I have been lead to believe that ensigns are not flags. "One wears an ensign but flies a flag." Have I been mislead on such an important matter?

 

[Daydream believer]

If your ensign is on a pole, remove the pole and dip it down towards the water. Wait until the warship dips and raises and then raise yours and replace. Its conventional to wave cheerfully at the poor OOW on the bridge who has noticed and ordered the rating to go and acknowledge.

If i tried that i would look a right dick the boat would either gybe or luff up as soon as i released the tiller to play silly b's & the warship would be long gone before i had regained composure & recovered ensign from the water. After getting the mainsheet round my neck. Assuming it floats that is

 

[oldbilbo]

If i tried that i would look a right dick the boat would either gybe or luff up as soon as i released the tiller to play silly b's & the warship would be long gone before i had regained composure & recovered ensign from the water. After getting the mainsheet round my neck. Assuming it floats that is

Oh, come now! This tradition is about 'yachts'.... Wouldn't you get one of your deck-hands to do that for you? Surely you have more important duties, such as regaling the ladies with tales of dering-do....

 

[Daydream believer]

That's a shame.

If I was the CO of a warship and saw you do that I wouldn't ignore you.

Not with all that firepower at hand...


_____________________________

Forepower???
Don't be daft
They cannot afford any bullets

 

[Daydream believer]

Somehow after 23 june when we surrender completely dipping the eu flag will not be quite the same
I suppose we will just kneel before it at the start of each day & count the growing number of stars

 

[alahol2]

I suppose we will just kneel before it at the start of each day & count the growing number of stars

'Fraid it's not like 'Old Glory', there were, are and always will be 12 stars on the EU flag.

 

[grumpy_o_g]

Saw the USS Nimitz at anchor just off Stokes Bay (too big to get into Portsmouth Harbour). We started counting all the aircraft on the flight deck and those we could see on a lower deck. We stopped when we realised they had more than the whole of the Fleet Air Arm. Then we were becalmed in her lee. Then they called Solent Coastguard for a radio check on Ch 16. It must be catching in the Solent.

Can't remember if it's the Nimitz or the Enterprise but most of 14 Squadron had a lovely picture of it taken from below flight deck level that we were allowed to take home as a keepsake of that years Deci detachment. It's only partially obscured by the HUD image showing the 4 x 1000lber's projected impact point just aft of midships.

 

[thinwater]

a. What does "important have to do with it?
b. If they are close enough to see that and watching, it is because I am inside the security exclusion zone and there is a weapon aimed at me. If I start diddling with the flag instead of leaving, they'll assume I'm up to something.

 

[john_morris_uk]

If i tried that i would look a right dick the boat would either gybe or luff up as soon as i released the tiller to play silly b's & the warship would be long gone before i had regained composure & recovered ensign from the water. After getting the mainsheet round my neck. Assuming it floats that is

My feeling is that the most significant phrase in your post is 'play silly b's'.

Of course you are entitled to your opinion about etiquette and no one is going to die in a ditch over your attitude but unless you're sailing some sort of radical high performance boat, I find it are to believe that the carnage you describe is going to happen. Assuming you really do hand steer everywhere and don't ever use an auto pilot, I've sailed lots of tiller steered boats and I'm trying to remember one where I couldn't reach the ensign staff and keep the boat more or less on course at the same time.

However my description wasn't a directive as to what you MUST do but answering a question about how you dip your ensign to another vessel. If you wish to ignore tradition that's your prerogative.

 

[Daydream believer]

My feeling is that the most significant phrase in your post is 'play silly b's'.

Of course you are entitled to your opinion about etiquette and no one is going to die in a ditch over your attitude but unless you're sailing some sort of radical high performance boat, I find it are to believe that the carnage you describe is going to happen. Assuming you really do hand steer everywhere and don't ever use an auto pilot, I've sailed lots of tiller steered boats and I'm trying to remember one where I couldn't reach the ensign staff and keep the boat more or less on course at the same time.

However my description wasn't a directive as to what you MUST do but answering a question about how you dip your ensign to another vessel. If you wish to ignore tradition that's your prerogative.[/.


Ok so let's look at it logically
In the past a tradition possibly from ships passing at sea or in foreign shores would be quite understandable. To dip the flag to a ship of the line returning home would be considered reasonable i would suspect. I would imagine that after the news of a victorious battle just about every ship or smaller vessel might want to "salute" the ship .but do you think that every small vessel in say the thames would dip their ensigns to a ship of the line. Considering the number of boats about( actually flying an ensign) there would be endless flag dipping & i suspect that the tradition is possibly overstated.
However, even if i am wrong, and i am sure many will queue up to correct me, there are now thousands of yachts carrying ensigns from a short flagstaff on the transom.
Now i know our fleet is considerably smaller does one really think that ensign dipping from a small yacht is really relevant in uk coastal waters. For that matter is it relevant in our busy european waters?.
I personally think that standing on the transom waving the flag on a stick like a kid at a carnival is not only silly but disrespectful to the flag.
That being said in less frequently visited waters to dip the ensign is a tradition that should not be discarded. If one has a yacht with an ensign hoisted on a mizzen for example then yes by all means dip it.. But i am not so sure i would even consider it with an ensign that was already virtually "dipped" anyway

 

[DannyB]

The only time I've dipped my ensign was to a submarine which was lying stationary on the surface just off the coast of Rassay. The tack I was on was taking me between the sub and the coast and to be honest, I got closer than I'd planned to. I got a nice wave from a couple of the guys up top. Incidentally I had a call from range control the previous day to say that they had a sub at periscope depth off my starboard quarter, and could I confirm that I could see it. I couldn't, and when I told them that, they thanked me and we went on our way. I've often wondered if the radio call came from the sub., a case of, we can see you, can you see us?