Scout wrote:
"Bob Crantz" wrote in message
. ..

"Charlie Morgan" wrote in message
...
A sailor slowly raises and then lowers a white flag. Why?

10 asa points

If it is just raising a white flag, the sailor is French.

He is half French, half German.
Scout

Not always.

In distinction to striking one's colors, hoisting a white flag, in
itself, is not an indication of surrender. Rather, hoisting a white
flag indicates a request for a truce in order to communicate with the
enemy. A belligerent is not required to cease fighting if the enemy
hoists a white flag. "A flag of truce cannot insist on being admitted,
and should rarely be used during an engagement. . . . Firing is not
necessarily to cease on the appearance of a flag of truce during an
engagement, and should any person connected with it be killed, no
complaint can be made. If however, the white flag should be exhibited
as a token of submission, firing is to cease."

A Naval Encyclopedia (Philadelphia: L. R. Hamersly & Co., 1881), p.
285.

Joe