The Frederica c.1860

Home - Museums - Themes - Exhibitions - News - Contribute - Search -

The Frederica c.1860

Contributed by Time and Tide Museum

The Frederica c.1860, oil on canvas, by unknown artist

The Frederica was built by Brandfords a local fishing firm and registered at Yarmouth in 1858. She traded between Liverpool and the Far East in the 1870s.
She is shown here flying flags which form her number 4072 in what was Marryat's signal code.

The inscription along the bottom of the painting reads ‘Frederica of Yarmouth, Joseph Blyth Commander.

Additional Notes

Numerical naval signal codes were introduced at the end of the 18th century, replacing the simpler system set out in various editions of the Sailing and Fighting Instructions. In the new codes, a series of different flags were numbered one to ten and hoisted in groups of oneto four flags. The number the flag hoist represented corresponded to a numbered order, word or sentence in the codebook. In 1817 Captain Frederick Marryat introduced a similar code for the merchant service. From 1857 this was gradually superseded by the Commercial Code of Signals later known as The International Code. Nineteenth century ship portraits frequently show the vessel flying a hoist of four signal flags and a pennant. This is usually an identification code indicating the vessel's name.