Kempenfelt

Kempenfelt, Richard

ACHIEVEMENT(S): Developed a new system of flag-signalling for the British Royal Navy

NICKNAME/ALIAS: None

DATE AND PLACE OF BIRTH: 1718, London, England

DATE/PLACE OF DEATH/AGE AT DEATH: August 29, 1782, (died in a sea accident off Spithead, England). Aged about 64

DISCIPLINE: Rear-admiral/Signal expert

FIELD: Military

LANGUAGE: English

PARENTS: Magnus Kempenfelt; Anne Hunt

SIBLINGS: Three, of whom Gustavus Adolphus

SPOUSE: None

CHILDREN: None

EDUCATION: Unknown

MAJOR WORK: None

LIFE AND TIMES:

Kempenfelt entered the Royal Navy at an early age and served for 40 years, for the most part as flag captain. In 1757, he was made captain of the "Elizabeth", and in 1758 took part in the battle of Pondicherry. Kempenfelt was then flag captain on the "Norfolk" and was present at the battle of Manila, finally returning to England in 1764. He spent the following few years touring Europe, and was recalled to the Navy in 1770 during the British dispute with Spain over the Falkland Islands. He took command of the "Buckingham".

During the 1770s, Kempenfelt set himself the job of improving flag signalling. European armies were using Chappe*'s semaphore telegraph, and a comparable development was going on at sea. Early signalling between naval vessels had been by flags, lights, or the movement of sails, a system codified in the 17th century by Pepys* and others. In this system, different-colored flags were used by day, and lights, sometimes with guns, were used at night.

Messages were conveyed depending on the position in which the light or flag was displayed. Vital orders, however, were still generally given by hailing boats, or sending a boat alongside a ship, but as ships got bigger, this became increasingly difficult. From 1750, the Admiralty issued more and more signalling booklets , called "Instructions", which called for more and more flags, sometimes as many as 50, and the situation was getting out of hand.

Kempenfelt approached the Admiral of the Fleet, Lord Howe, with his ideas, and the two of them devised a new system, which Howe published in 1776. It reduced the number of flags and recommended the use of one book to illustrate the signals and a second book to explain when they should be used.

While helping Lord Howe set up his new signalling system, Kempenfelt came across a numerary system (first suggested by Mahe de la Bourdonnais) and used it to develop a radical new plan which he submitted to the admiralty in 1780. Up to then, differences in meaning were indicated by varying the position of a solitary flag. Kempenfelt's idea was to use a system in which distinct flags would be combined in pairs and which used a new code with 10 flags for the numerals. However, Kempenfelt's plan was rejected as being too complicated.

Lord Howe took up Kempenfelt's rejected work, simplified his proposals, and got them accepted by the Admiralty after Kempenfelt lost his life in a sea accident in 1782 aboard the "Royal George", which Kempenfelt was commanding, which occurred during an effort to repair a leak. The guns had been run to one side to tip the ship, but the vessel capsized. About 800 people drowned.

In 1790, Howe put out a new code book, adopting Kempenfelt's numerary system, and introducing about a dozen other flags and pendants that Kempenfelt had proposed, such as the "Affirmative" and the "Preparative", and also "Substitutes" (meaning that two, three or four flag groups could be used, without carrying several sets of flags). At night, guns, rockets and lanterns were used, the latter hung singly or in groups in different parts of the ship.

The Howe-Kempenfelt code was revised in 1794 and again simplified in 1799. The new revision contained 340 signals, became generally used throughout the 19th century, and is the basis for the flag system still used by the Royal Navy.

ASSESSMENT: His signalling code helped England win some of the great sea battles against France during the Napoleonic Wars.

EXTRA CONNECTIONS: None

ONELINER: Richard Kempenfelt, flag-signalling expert

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

DNB

Kent, Captain Barrie, Signal! A History of Signalling in the Royal Navy, Hyden House, Hampshire, 1993.