Distress rockets
31 August 2018 11:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
igenlodeI wasted a great deal of time trying -- in a Web seemingly dominated by Titanic distress rocket controversies -- to research what the 'old' signal rockets were like before the Cotton Powder Co. started producing the new 'socket signals' (as used by the Titanic) in the 1880s, and how they were let off. After several days it dawned on me that the old-style whoosh-hiss-trail-of-fire signal rockets would be no use to Raoul anyway, given that he is currently engaged in trying to signal a ship in broad daylight :-(
What he needs is something with a loud bang, and since I really don't want to have to get into the question of the Requin's armament -- as a navy ship with a large complement of men she probably ought to have guns, but that raises complicated questions about the heeling over and the salvage procedure -- it's much easier just to give him access to a patent new-fangled distress signal. And at least, thanks to the aforesaid Titanic/Californian argument, there is a lot of very detailed material about those.
http://www.titanicology.com/Californian/WhatColorWereThey.pdf (very detailed descriptions and diagrams)
https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/community/threads/titanics-distress-rockets.2677/#post-30195
(international daytime distress signals circa 1912 -- couldn't find specifics for 19th century)
https://www.thecollectingbug.com/pyrotechnicalia~marineandmilitarydevices~fworklabel092/item
(instruction label)
The dates for the socket signals don't make it totally out of the question for the Requin to be carrying them (and if they were brand new, it would explain why Raoul, just out of training, would know about them when the old salts on board apparently don't). The PDF cites a newspaper article from as early as 1880 describing experiments in Canada with "The Cotton Powder Company's signals, as supplied to steamships". However, the specific patent quoted was only issued in 1889. There is also an article from The Illustrated Naval and Military Magazine of 1886 stating that "The Board of Trade have authorised these signals" and Van Nostrand's Engineering Magazine of 1881 stating that "I am informed that many vessels have been supplied with these rocket signals... and that the Board of Trade have sanctioned their use in lieu of either guns or rockets" -- I think it unlikely that the French navy would have adopted them as standard circa 1883, but perhaps the special circumstances of the Requin's mission might have made her an exceptional case?
What he needs is something with a loud bang, and since I really don't want to have to get into the question of the Requin's armament -- as a navy ship with a large complement of men she probably ought to have guns, but that raises complicated questions about the heeling over and the salvage procedure -- it's much easier just to give him access to a patent new-fangled distress signal. And at least, thanks to the aforesaid Titanic/Californian argument, there is a lot of very detailed material about those.
http://www.titanicology.com/Californian/WhatColorWereThey.pdf (very detailed descriptions and diagrams)
https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/community/threads/titanics-distress-rockets.2677/#post-30195
(international daytime distress signals circa 1912 -- couldn't find specifics for 19th century)
https://www.thecollectingbug.com/pyrotechnicalia~marineandmilitarydevices~fworklabel092/item
(instruction label)
The dates for the socket signals don't make it totally out of the question for the Requin to be carrying them (and if they were brand new, it would explain why Raoul, just out of training, would know about them when the old salts on board apparently don't). The PDF cites a newspaper article from as early as 1880 describing experiments in Canada with "The Cotton Powder Company's signals, as supplied to steamships". However, the specific patent quoted was only issued in 1889. There is also an article from The Illustrated Naval and Military Magazine of 1886 stating that "The Board of Trade have authorised these signals" and Van Nostrand's Engineering Magazine of 1881 stating that "I am informed that many vessels have been supplied with these rocket signals... and that the Board of Trade have sanctioned their use in lieu of either guns or rockets" -- I think it unlikely that the French navy would have adopted them as standard circa 1883, but perhaps the special circumstances of the Requin's mission might have made her an exceptional case?