Anyone know about Civil War era Navy distress signals? I'm researching "blue light" which was a pyrotechic signal used for generations before and after the War. Specifically, can anyone help me find out if a signal kit was stocked on US Navy lifeboats during the Civil War?

There are some interesting points about military use of pyrotechnics here: http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/lofiversion/index.php/t3640.html

The above led me to this from the US Patent Office:
" Martha J. Coston perfected then patented her deceased husband's idea for a pyrotechnic flare. Coston's husband, a former naval scientist, died leaving behind only a rough sketch in a diary of plans for the flares. Martha developed the idea into an elaborate system of flares called Night Signals that allowed ships to communicate messages nocturnally. The U. S. Navy bought the patent rights to the flares. Coston's flares served as the basis of a system of communication that helped to save lives and to win battles. Martha credited her late husband with the first patent for the flares, but in 1871 she received a patent for an improvement exclusively her own. "

I didn't search for the patent but Ms. Coston does have a Wikipedia page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martha_Coston

I've never made any great effort to look into that specific issue but my understanding, based primarily on reading a lot of historic accounts of period ships in distress, and my memory of the accounts, is that while some ships carried rockets for emergency signaling I can't remember any lifeboats carrying pyrotechnics. Lanterns in various forms, some of which may have had lenses or glass that were colored, get mentioned but I don't remember any lifeboats from the Civil War era using pyrotechnics.

<blockquote>from Robert Welcome, NZ. Edward Wilson Very invented a "new and useful improvement in Pyrotechnic signal cartridges...". US Patent 190263 dated 1 May 1877. Very is predated by one Benjamin Franklin Coston, but Coston's gun retained the flare & was really only an ignition device and the "gun" was waved at arms length. Very's gun discharged the flare in the way we know today. In a quirk of history, Coston's son actually invented the first aerial flare launching cartridge, but his mother, jealous of the invention, lobbied against it being accepted by the Navy. Therefore Very got the credit for inventing the pistol & cartridge. Very's invention was accepted in 1882 by the US Navy & by 1900 Very pistols & cartridges were in use throughout the world. </blockquote>

Above from:
http://www.diggerhistory.info/pages-weapons/signal-pistols.htm


http://www.radcliffe.edu/schles/exhibits/enterprisingwomen/builder/coston.html

No information if these hand-held flares were used on lifeboats. I sort of doubt if they were routinely kept on lifeboats as they were fairly new and likely expensive. Routine stocking of provisions and equipment on lifeboats didn't seem to be common until later.

There is also considerable ambiguity around what is meant by 'lifeboat'. The first lifeboats were rescue boats intended to be launched from shore, row through surf and weather, for the purposes of saving people on ships in distress. Lifeboat stations were fixtures along many hazardous shores.

It wasn't until much later that ships started carrying dedicated boats as a reserve means of keeping people afloat. Many ships had small boats for service and utility transport, and these would certainly be pressed into service if the ship was sinking, but, as far as I can tell, carrying boats as emergency equipment wasn't very common around the Civil War era.

I'm not sure any of this helps answer your question but maybe it will help stimulate a more complete answer form someone with more specialized knowledge.

Thanks, Art et al. I was looking into the possibility that when the Confederate submarine sank the Union ship Housatonic in 1864, the "blue light" which was reportedly seen by one of the Housatonic's crewmen could have been coming from one of the ship's lifeboats. Don't know how many boats she would have been carrying; at least three were reported as being recovered by the rescuing vessels. "Blue light" was standard distress signal and would have been handy aboard the ship, but not sure if it was stocked on the ship's boats. The ship went down in about five minutes, and there may have not been time for the crew to bring blue lights from elsewhere in the ship to use in the boats. Some feel that the blue light was displayed by the Hunley to signify a successful mission, and others don't accept that explanation, so I was looking for an alternate source of the blue light. I appreciate your input.

Chris