Pendant Numbers of the Royal Navy

“An invaluable tool . . .lists all known pendants numbers for surface ships and submarines, and has a supplement [for] vessels of the British Pacific Fleet” —Nautical Research Journal

Pendant (or pennant) numbers have been used by individual ships of the Royal Navy for purposes of identification for more than one hundred years. They were also used in the navies of the British Empire so that ships could be easily transferred from one navy to another without changing her number. Pendant numbers offer the simplest and clearest way to identify a ship, but until now there has been little in the way of consistent and accurate information, and certainly no single location where you can look up or research complete pendant numbers.

This book is designed as an easy-to-use reference work. Beginning with an introduction and a brief history of visual signalling used by the Royal Navy before industrialisation, the authors explain how the large numbers of identical ships being built brought about the need to identify specific ships within fleets to aid signalling and tactical deployment. There follow chapters covering the pendant numbers of the surface fleet and submarines, and then pendant numbers by ship name. A significant chapter lists the pendant numbers assigned to the British Pacific Fleet during the Pacific campaign of WWII, along with an explanation of why numbers were assigned, and an examination of missing ‘A’ series pendants known to have been carried by some vessels during the conflict.

A significant reference book, Pendant Numbers of the Royal Navy is destined to become a major new aid for Royal Navy warship and auxiliary identification.