What do the flags mean in this picture of a Soviet spy ship?

Factual Questions
1

Hi. At the link is a photo of a Soviet spy ship circa 1986. I was wondering if anybody knew what the flags meant?

http://cryptome.org/ssv/ccb-514.htm - 0.5MB JPEG

They appear to be flying the flags of Japan and France which surprises me - maybe they have some other meaning in a nautical setting?

cheers,
tim

2

They’re signal flags. Each flag represents a letter of the alphabet. They’re usually used to display the ship’s call sign.

Link

3

International maritime signal flags:

What looks like the French flag is the letter “T”.
What looks like the Japanese flag is the numeral “1”.

4

I’m pretty sure they’re signaling flags; the flags are R, T, 2 on the left; Y, V, 1 in the center; and what might be 9 on the right. Don’t ask me what these combinations of letters & numbers actually mean, though.

5

That’s a Soviet spy ship? It looks like a bunch of refugees who stole an old fishing trawler.

Maybe that was the idea…

6

I believe it is - it’s from Cryptome.org and if you hit the main page http://www.cryptome.org there are pics of more. I believe the pic is originally from the DoD.

tim

7

It may be a call sign, as suggested. Russian call signs begin with R. Does RT2YV19 make sense as a call sign?

8

In the International Code of Signals, the signal hoist “R T 2” is not defined, and the code “Y V 1” means "The


 groups which are to follow are from the local code."

Code signals you really never want to see include "A D" which means "I am abandoning my vessel which has suffered a nuclear accident and is a possible source of radiation danger," and "M I P" meaning "Patient has diarrhea with frequent stools like rice water."
9

If that was the idea they are not really fooling anyone. Just look at the bewildering array of antenna on that ship not to mention the guys on the bridge peering through binoculars and at least one snapping photos.