"false flag[s]" -- and "false colours" from 1703 & 1794

[Joel S. Berson]

At 4/20/2011 04:57 PM, Victor Steinbok wrote:
>It's interesting that two out of three earliest GB citations (125 years
>apart) both have "false flag(s)" in the ancillary material rather than
>in the text--the index for Dalrymple and the page banner for the
>Maritime Law. But the other 1806 one /is/ actually from the 18th
>century, but the best we can do is [before 1776].

As Victor noted earlier, the 1806 quotation doesn't actually use the
phrase "false flag[s]".  We know the practice was in use then (and in
the 18th and likely 17th, 16th, 15th, &c., &c., centuries -- as is
confirmed by the instances of "false colours" referring literally to
ships' flags.  (Although I didn't find any instances of {"false
colours" + ship} before 1703.)

>...
>1745, but record from November 23, 1693:
>
>http://goo.gl/9uMIx
>>... at which time being
>>in carbine shot of us, he run out his lower tier of guns, (which I did
>>not expect, nor was well pleased to see) nine of each side, and struck
>>his false colours, and hoisted the /French /white sheet.

GBooks has the above (Collection of Voyages and Travels, by
Churchill) in a 1704 edition.
----------
There is an earlier instance of literal "false colours", from
1703.  The Athenian Oracle: Being an Entire Collection of all the
Valuable Questions and Answers in the Old Athenian Mercuries. ... By
a Member of the Athenian Society: London, Printed for Andrew Bell
..., 1703.  Pages 326-327:

For Minos is said to be the first Inventer of Sea-fights, who lived
not long after the Flood; and we are more sure, that not [327] only
the use of Flags, but even False-Colours, Fireships, Stink-Pots, and
Snake-Pots, were known to the Ancients, as we learn in Fronto of Strategems.

[See, I told you so!  Earlier than the 18th century!  :-) ]
----------
>...
>1730, but the record from January 17, 1690:
>
>http://goo.gl/lihAu
>>I did never think it was the Part of any who were of Council for the
>>King in Cases of this Nature, to endeavour to aggravate the Crime of
>>the Prisoners, by going about to put false Colours upon Evidence, ...

(The above of course is figurative.)

>...
>The only one with an actually current date is from 1739 (Record dated
>March 26--April 1739 issue):
>
>http://goo.gl/fi6Rw
>>A Spanish guarda costa attempted lately to surprize an English trading
>>vessel belonging to Liverpool, on the coast of Guiney. She had put out
>>false colours, to lead them into the snare;...

 From the naval incidents leading to the War of Jenkins' Ear (not
declared until October 1739).  One might expect several more
quotations during the next few years.

>...
>So we have cites from 1628,

Yes for the practice -- but not for the phrase.

>1711, 1716, 1718, 1724 and 1793 all using
>"to hang false colours" as a metaphor for pretense, with 1690 and 1693
>records (appearing in later printings, followed by a fairly steady
>stream from 1753 forward) showing actual naval use. I can't imagine the
>former appearing without the latter--

Nor can I.  But the 1690 record (printed 1730), if not its printing,
is close enough to the 1703 & 1704 (which is perhaps from a 1693 use)
printings so that I think we don't have to assume the figurative use
came before the literal.

>or, for that matter, having a
>non-naval "false colours" engagement. So usage appears to go back into
>the 16th century,

17th?  (and late)

>although getting records of that would involve
>something other than GB.

EEBO?

Joel

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