Semaphore Alphabet — Design Sample 267

Signal stage

Live pose · observer's view

Letter

A

Rest arm down, signal arm low left — the alphabet begins at the hip.

Arm one: Down; 180°
Arm two: Low left; 225°
Circle: First — anchored on the resting arm; 1

Bench composer

Type · watch · send

Message to spell

Letters and spaces only. Unmapped characters are dropped at the yardarm.

The twenty-six

A → Z · select to stage

Control signals

Not letters · still mandatory

Numeralscontrol000° Up045° High rightEverything after this sign is read as figures, not letters.

Annulcontrol315° High left135° Low rightStrike the last group. Hold until the far station repeats it.

Restcontrol180° Down180° DownArms down, flags crossed at the knee. The pause between words.

The seven circles

Anchor arm · yield

Each circle holds one arm still and sweeps the other through what remains of the eight positions. Twenty-eight combinations, twenty-six letters, two controls.
#	Anchor arm	Yields	Note
1	180° Down	A B C D E F G	Seven letters swung against a resting arm.
2	225° Low left	H I K L M N	Six, with the anchor dropped to the low left.
3	270° Out left	O P Q R S	Five, anchored on the horizontal.
4	315° High left	T U Y + annul	Four, anchored above the shoulder.
5	000° Up	J V + numerals	Three, anchored vertically.
6	045° High right	W X	Two, both crowded to starboard.
7	090° Out right	Z	One. The circle closes.

Notes from the yard

Practice · cadence · error

Cadence

Six to eight letters a minute is a working rate for a two-flag station. Faster looks impressive and reads as noise. Hold each pose for a full beat, drop to rest between words, and let the receiving station set the pace by how often they ask you to repeat.

Distance

The red-and-yellow flag was chosen because the pair survives grey weather better than any single colour. At two miles the flags stop being squares and become a diagonal smear; what remains legible is the angle of the arms against the sky, which is why this index is filed by degrees.

Common confusions

T and Y differ by a single 45° step and are the pair most often lost in a swell. E and C are mirrors. If a group comes back wrong twice, send the annul signal, drop to rest for three beats, and begin again.

Standing still

Every instructor says the same thing in a different accent: the flags do not make the letter, the shoulders do. Lock the elbow, square the hips to the receiver, and stop moving. A pose that wobbles is a pose that gets repeated.