DIVE HISTORIAN PRESENTATION

THE "DIVER DOWN" FLAG

Flag	Name	Phonetic Pronunciation	Meaning
	Diver Down		I have a diver down; keep well clear at slow speed.
	Alpha	AL-fah	I have a diver down; keep well clear at slow speed.
	Papa	pah-PAH	All personnel return to ship; proceeding to sea (In port).
	Seven	SEV-en	Numeral seven.

The "Diver Down" Flag came along around 1958. The flag had Started out as a Navy number 7 flag which was red with a white vertical stripe. The Navy had specific rules about size and so forth and the divers' flag emerged. It was promptly used as a target by early personal water-craft. Clubs and councils Started to promote better diver-boatman relations. These efforts did much to spread the good word about the divers' flag. Michigan was the first state to officially recognize the flag. Many boats flew the flag simply in support of diving. It took quite some time to teach the boatmen only to fly the flag when a diver was down.

On the international scene, the "Alpha" flag is the norm. This is a white and blue flag. The white area near the staff and a triangular notch cut out of the blue area.

Another flag to know is the "Diver Recall" flag. This is the International Flag Code "P", a blue rectangular flag with a white smaller rectangle in the middle. The more common diver recall signal is to bang on the under water ladder, or play the very powerful theme music from "Jaws" over the underwater loudspeakers.

Even today, boatmen don't seem to know what these flags means. If they do know that it is a diver down below flag, they don't know enough to stay away from it. It seems like the modern water scooter riders use the flags as slalom markers. The dive flag is not as effective as we would like it to be. NM State Park regulations, for instance, require one competent diver-tender must remain above water at all times. The same regulations also cover the diver's flag and the 150' distance that boats shall respect.