Posted by Mike Field on July 14, 2015 at 17:33:27 user mikefield.
In Reply to: Re: Swallow, Amazon and Scarab flag sizes/halyard attachments posted by Roger Wardale on July 14, 2015 at 01:15:56:
Roger, if you mean the burgee on the stern of that canoe, then I have to say that that's hardly typical usage. That one's clearly there for decoration and not for showing wind direction -- much like the jacks shown in others of the pictures on that page.
If the RCC 'standard' for masthead pennants is indeed like that, then I regret that it's a pretty low standard.... The problem with such a set-up is that with a few changes of tack coupled with a change or two in wind direction the pennant can wrap itself right around the staff, when it becomes essentially useless for indicating apparent wind. The wire-on-stick method I showed in this post circumvents this possibility. (Most modern vessels now use little plastic windvanes on swivels in place of pennants anyway.)
This is not to say that the S&A boats were not rigged like that of course -- they could very well have been. But I don't imagine Cdr Walker would really have approved....
Edited at the last minute to add -- I've been perusing S&A quickly to see what early references there might be to Swallow's pennant, and I've come across these from Ch.2 --
On the original pennant -- "He held up a tiny flagstaff with a three-cornered blue flag on it."
On Titty's replacement -- "... she had fastened it on the little wire flagstaff where the blue flag had been..."
... so I don't think we're much further forward. :(
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