Hello all, my first post here. I've been lurking for some time!
My name is Jeff, I am a modeler of some 48 years. I am working on a 1/350th Titanic diorama of Titanic in better days as a full dressed ship at berth #44 Southampton Docks. Although there is a plethora of photo's of her on the web, there are a lot of Olympic photo's claiming to be Titanic. I don't own a single book as of yet, so it has taken a lot of study on this wonderful site to sort that out. I have a good shot of Titanic fully dressed, however it has been shot with Orthochromatic film, therefore the Warm colors appear very dark and the cool very light. This makes the signal flags appear very differently. I have had reasonable success "decoding" up to about 1/3 back from the foremast, and just wondered if anyone has seen a clearer photo. The one I have has the LIFE logo on the bottom right and the name H. Symes. There are a number of colored paintings, however they don't coincide with the photo, one even has green flags!!
Perhaps someone has the sequence? I have studied Art's superb work on the flags, which if I hadn't seen wouldn't have known about the earlier signal flags sans numbers. Thanks for that Art. Any help would be appreciated. p.s. If you had to choose one book for a nitpicking modeler what might it be?



Regards to all,

Jeff Dyck (I had to spell with a Y it is really with I but sensored out) Ho Hum.

Hello Jeff,

I'm not aware of anyone having worked out the exact sequence of signal flags used in dressing ship, so I look forward to seeing what you come up with.

There are several shots of Olympic dressed at various times in her career. I don't know if her flag sequence was identical to Titanic's but it might be worth looking into.

Regards,
Ralph

Jeff,
You've got me curious about the flags too.
Haven't seen Art around for a while, but your right. He's the flag expert here, and I'm sure he'll have the correct answer.
I doubt they dropped them all in a barrel and threw them up 'willy nilly'. I remember something about a certain order to dress flags, so I'm sure Art will know.

Also, I was impressed by your statement about Orthochromatic film.
Most of the information on this site was learned from observations made from photographs of Olympic class ships and other vessels.
Unfortunately, not taking into account the properties of these photos, has lead to some erroneous assumptions. Please share any more knowledge you may have on the subject, and I'll look forward to your opinion.
Charles

>Jeff,
>You've got me curious about the flags too.
>Haven't seen Art around for a while, but your right. He's the
>flag expert here, and I'm sure he'll have the correct answer.
>I doubt they dropped them all in a barrel and threw them up
>'willy nilly'. I remember something about a certain order to
>dress flags, so I'm sure Art will know.
>
>Also, I was impressed by your statement about Orthochromatic
>film.
>Most of the information on this site was learned from
>observations made from photographs of Olympic class ships and
>other vessels.
>Unfortunately, not taking into account the properties of these
>photos, has lead to some erroneous assumptions. Please share
>any more knowledge you may have on the subject, and I'll look
>forward to your opinion.
>Charles

Charles,I too am eagerly awaiting for Art's reply and expertise on the flags as in the order they were dressed from the forecastle across between the mast and the aft of the ship,also I agree with your views on the orthochromatic film. Regards,Bob

There are all sorts of complicated theories on Orthochromatic film's
sensitivity to different colors. Different colored filters were used by professionals to change the sensitivity to certain colors. I am a WWI modeler and most of the photo's are orthochromatic, making the guessing of colors even more difficult. Once you get the hang of it, it becomes easy to detect. When you know certain things are certain colors, and they look very wrong it triggers the Ahaa! reaction. Below is an old Kodak comparison ad showing clearly the differences. Hope all this helps.

Regards,
Jeff

Attachment #1, (jpg file)

There was no specified order. Regulations only called for the flags to be arranged such that the various shapes - swallowtails, burgees and rectangular flags - and predominant colors were evenly distributed for appearance overall. This is quoted in the Flags section of chapter 22 of TTSM V1, but I don't have it in front of me to cite the page.

Regards

Art Braunschweiger
TRMA Trustee

While on the subject of TTSM.
The website has been updated to widescreen 1280 x 800.
http://www.titanic-theshipmagnificent.com/
Currently The History Press is offering TTSM Limited Edition (for TRMA members) for 140 pounds until the end of July. After that, the remaining copies will be given out to market for 250 pounds.
It's a great price. If anyone is interested, contact The History Press and quote the code.