The art of the personal signal

Our personal signal, the white sea horse, which we fly from the starboard spreader of our mizzen mast.

Our white sea horse swallowtail.

Years ago, every sailor had his or her own personal signal (pirate flags were personal signals), which they flew on whatever vessel they were sailing. Most personal signals as of some civilized date were listed in Lloyd's register so you could identify the master of each vessel. The personal signal was usually selected to represent something very meaningful to or about the individual flying it. 

Naturally, the personal signals of the pirates were not registered, although they were pretty well known and so widely recognizable that they did not have to be registered. Take Blackbeard, for example. When he hoisted his particular brand of jolly roger, boats scattered.

The personal signal translated onto a new medium...the spinnaker.

Personal signals of club members are often flown in the clubhouse. 

Today, the personal signal is still developed by proud racers, owners of significant vessels and officers of yachting organizations, although for the most part the tradition has waned in favor of the martini glass, sport fish, or babewatch flag. We, being none of the above, have nevertheless subscribed to the tradition, as we have a famous (or infamous) heritage to reflect. 

You see, we fly the flag of the famous O'Malley queen of the west of Ireland, who commanded many ships, many men, and eventually became a pirate to protect her holdings against the foreign raiders of her lands. Grace O'Malley, aka Granuaille, flew the white sea horse aboard her ship the Moytura.

So we adopted the white sea horse, redrawn and stylized by Alex himself, as our personal signal to honor our family heritage. One of our friends developed his personal signal based on his family member's choices of favorite colors - his wife, his son, and he each have a primary color that they favor and so their personal signal depicts a red circle, a blue circle, and a yellow circle on a white background. Another friend chose a stylized rose on the background of a cross to reflect his English family roots. Another uses a chess piece as an emblem for his name: Bishop. This should give you an idea of places you could look for inspiration for your personal signal.

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