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First edition of one of the earliest published telegraphic signal systems, predating Marryat's famous Code by a year; created by a Royal Naval ship's master, drawing on readily available materials to generate a practical vocabulary. Rare, three locations for this edition, and five for the J. Keymer printed Yarmouth edition of the same year. "The great importance in a Country of such extended Commerce as Great Britain, to have some general but simple mode of communication established between merchant Vessels meeting at sea, induced the Author to form this small code of Signals upon such a simple and easy plan as cannot fail to be perfectly understood. The simplicity of the plan, and from no extra flags being required except a white one, and for which a table cloth may be occasionally substituted, will cause them to be made with simplicity. Objections [were made to] the great expense of flags; but the plan herein adopted will do away with that objection, as every Ship has a Jack, Ensign, and Pendant; with those, a White Flag, a Broad Pendant, and two round Balls, every purpose will be answered. These signals have already been printed in Norway, of which I recently had a proof, by meeting one of the Ships of Mr Elif Hansen, of Christiania, to whom I gave a manuscript copy, and who has had them translated and printed; by means of which we enabled to communicate to each other with the greatest ease and facility" (Preface). An 1817 Copenhagen edition, credited to one Niels Hagen has been traced, along with an "improved" American edition compiled, printed, and published by James M. Elford in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1818; a German edition was produced in Travemünde in 1820, translated by H. Zornig "from the English and Danish". Nathaniel Squire (Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, 1787 - Pakefield, Suffolk, 1852), is listed as ship's master Royal Navy, serving in the third-rate Bellona, 74, captain George McKinley, off the Scheldt in 1812 (UK Hydrographic Office miscellaneous papers, MP/99/21), and in the English Channel 1813-14. Bellona was paid off and broken up in 1814 after 57 years of service, an extraordinary length of time in the era of wooden ships. Squire subsequently appears in the list of Yarmouth ship registrations for 1814 as part owner and master of the 113-ton square-sterned bark Prince of Orange, a prize taken by HMS Rollo; and in 1816 as part owner of, and mariner in, the Darlington, a 75-ton, square-sterned brigantine and the Eliza, a round-sterned brigantine of 100 tons. In 1825 he was noted as master of the 178-ton square-sterned brig Rapid, another condemned prize, first registered in 1818. Squire continues to be listed in local directories - Pigot's 1830 under "Gentry and Clergy", Hunt & Co's 1850 - as a master in the Royal Navy. Maritime Heritage East online, "Ships registered at Yarmouth 1800 to 1823" and ". 1824 to 1835"; Alan R. McCracken, "The Universal Signal Book, 1818", Proceedings of the U.S. Naval Institute, 60, 2, February 1934; Hilary P. Mead "Centenary of the International Signal Book", Royal United Services Institution Journal, 102:607, 1957. Small octavo (154 x 91 mm), pp. 35. With 16 fully engraved pages of signal flags with interpretations. Publisher's drab boards skilfully rebacked to style in speckled sheep, smooth spine divided by gilt paired fillets, pink printed label to front cover. Overall, somewhat rubbed, damp spotting to the front cover, label with a few small chips, loss of a couple of letters, some browning throughout, particularly to the engraved leaves, but largely very good.
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