Ensign Dipping
 

Ensign Dipping

Can anyone remember the various ways that ensigns should be dipped as a courtesy gesture?
Who dips the ensign first?
Who raises the ensign first?
The difference between dipping to warships and merchant ships?
Dipping to ships of the same company?
And so on.
As I recall, sometimes the ensign was dipped and immediately raised, sometimes it was dipped, then the other ship dipped and raised in reply, then ones own raised. There were various combinations, and only one was correct for each combination of ship.

Richard, we used to dip the flag when we were passing a company ship..Here is a photo of the Royal Viking Sky passing the Royal Viking star in the Panama Canal, you can see the flag is being dipped...

http://www.shippinghistory.com/galle...atid=newimages

Cheers Frank

Merchant ships dip their ensigns to all warships of any nationality
MN ship lowers ensign, warship responds by lowering theirs, warship raises ensign, merchant ship raises their ensign. Job done.

Merchant ships dipping to company vessels.
Establish which vessel has the senior master.
Junior master's ship lowers, senior master's ship lowers, senior master's ship raises, junior master's ship raises. Job done.

I remember dipping to various ships over the years, and lived in mortal fear of getting it wrong. Especially on passenger ships where such procedures were very important. Sometimes, like on the Queen Mary, it was often a two man job. 28 knots plus a head wind and a very large ensign took a lot of handling. Not always instruction from the Bridge either. :)

I well remember a time when I was on the Bamenda Palm, when an argument broke out between to captains. I was on the wheel when a Palm Line ship was approaching us, our captain told the other A.B. on watch to standby to dip the ensign as soon as they dipped to us, he said he was the senior captain, the other ship did not dip to us so our skipper got on the radio and asked why they had not dipped, the other skipper said he was senior captain, after arguing for some time it seemed one or the other was senior by one month. The third mate and I had a good laugh after our skipper stormed out of the wheelhouse in disgust.

I love it :applause:

Going up the river to Bangkok, the whole Thai navy was moored, I think we just dipped for about every ten little boats. At the age of Seventeen, it seemed impossibly dramatic to be dipping the ensign to a gunboat in such a foreign place. You could almost believe in fairies.

I remember leaving Apapa on a Henderson ship when we passed the Elder Dempster mail boat which was alongside. We duly dipped our ensign to the senior ship only to notice as she dipped in reply that her ensign was upside down! As Elder Dempster Pursers' staff on the Henderson ship we were never able to live it down for the rest of the voyage.

Some countries attach more importance to flag dipping than others. During the 1969-70 season at Marmugao there were ships of all nationalities loading iron ore, mostly at anchor in the river or just outside. Warships leaving and entering the naval base at Vasco da Gama expected to be noticed and receive due ceremony. Of course that didn't happen, no-one kept a full-time bridge watch with half a dozen lighters alongside and stevedores running all over the place.

The Port Admiral notified both shipping agencies that his ships were to be acknowledged when passing through the anchorage so the message came around to keep an eye out for warships and do the necessary. Of course once those particular ships had loaded and departed, the newly arrived were unaware of what had gone before, the agents said nothing, so the whole process began again. The season lasted from late August to April when the SW monsoon began to make the anchorage untenable for lighters.

I only spent the one season on that run, but I imagine the same thing happened every year.

When are we going to hear from our new American friend directly? Is Ensign Dipping doing a rooky trip somewhere beyond satellite cover?

Funniest experience I had when ensign dipping was arriving in Norfolk Va where I think damn near the whole American fleet was docked. The ensign was going up and down more often than a 'w+++++ drawers'. When we passed the aircaft carrier USS FORRESTAL, I think there was no one in sight. Ensign dipped and a sailor comes out of the midship Island, gets on a push bike and rides aft at a rate of knots, dips the ensign and the salute was duly acknowledged. Then he rode back, it looked hilarious.

About a day out of Cape Town, heading north, I spotted a submarine in the distance, informed the OOW and asked if I could dip to it. He said yes, so I ran up the ensign and watched the sub. Heads disappeared from the conning tower then re appeared and they ran their ensign up. We duly dipped. Their ensign came down as did ours, and we went on our merry way. Quite funny as it appeared that we caught them on the hop. :)
Another time we were in some N German port when a line of several NATO warships sailed past us. All pretty small stuff, mine sweeper sort of size. I dipped to them, but got a rollocking for not dipping to the last one. I pointed out that that one was under tow and flying no ensigns. Looked like she was not part of the flotilla and looked as though it was more likely to be going to the breakers. "Right" was the Old Mans short reply. Always good for a giggle in the mess later on, that sort of thing. :)

Rabaul New Britain...mid 1960's, noticed aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne leaving port so called our Secunny to stand-by the ensign. Melbourne had a guy at their stern ensign ready but after passing 3 or 4 vessels without a salute decided he had better things to do and wandered back to mid ship, he must have run the fastest 100mtr on record down the flight-deck to answer our dip.

a squally day in the Solent. Steaming down towards the Needles. the mate decided to Dip to a small Naval craft.A man appeared from midships and ran the wet deck aft to respond. after he made his way back.....wet through...before entering the superstructure he looked at us with an evil eye. I think he was doubting our parentage!