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CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS C. F. CLAY, MANAGER LONDON: FETTER LANE, E.C. 4
BOMBAY } CALCUTTA } MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD. MADRAS }
TORONTO: THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD.
[Illustration: _A Ship of Henry VIII, circa 1545_]
THEIR EARLY HISTORY, AND THEIR DEVELOPMENT AT SEA; WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE ORIGIN OF THE FLAG AS A NATIONAL DEVICE
ADMIRALTY LIBRARIAN SECRETARY OF THE NAVY RECORDS SOCIETY FELLOW OF THE ROYAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY
It might have been expected that the attempt to trace to their origin in the past the institutions and customs in common use upon the sea would from an early date occupy the attention of a seafaring people, but for some obscure reason the British nation has always been indifferent to the history of its activities upon that element on which its greatness was founded, and to which it has become more and more dependent for its daily bread and its very existence. To those who are alive to this fact it will hardly come as a surprise, therefore, to learn that the first sustained attempt at a detailed investigation into the history of the flag at sea was made under the patronage of the German Admiralty by a German Admiral. Vice-Admiral Siegel's _Die Flagge_, published in 1912, was the first book to deal with the development of the flag at sea in a scientific spirit, and although the earlier chapters contain some mistakes due to his employment of translations of early works instead of original texts, and the accounts of the British flags in the later chapters suffer because he had no access to original records, it is a worthy piece of work.
The present book is an attempt to remove the reproach to the British nation which this implies. Its plan is somewhat different from that of the work referred to above. Instead of dealing with the flags of all maritime nations of the world--a task that (if it was to be more than a mere copying or compilation) would entail much work in foreign archives--it seemed more profitable to concentrate upon the history of British Naval Flags, for researches made so far back as 1908 had taught me how much that is inaccurate about their history had received acceptance. But first it seemed necessary to devote some time and space to the inquiry into the origin of the flag and how it became the honoured symbol of nationality that it now is, and for this a general view had to be taken in order that a firm foundation might be laid for the early history of our own flags.