Ships have a regular way of talking to one another, by means of flags arranged in certain ways.
This form of signalling is comprehended by all sailors. It is a universal language, and no matter from what country or in what seas ships may be sailing, the language of the flags makes it possible for them to be understood.
There has been one difficulty with the flag-signals, and that has been that they were useless at night. When it became too dark for the flags to be seen, sailors had no other means of communication.
The New York paper claims to have overcome this difficulty.
In saying that ships have no means of communicating with each other, it must not be forgotten that they can use lights and send certain messages with them. But the flag system enables them to say exactly what they wish to, while through the lights they can only show where they are, and call for help in case of accident.

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