From the TFM Collection. The photograph above depicts a U.S. Navy signalman at sea, practicing the art of flag signaling — known as semaphore — one of the primary means of ship-to-ship communication before the advent of radio. Each position of the flags represented a letter or number, allowing trained signalmen to transmit messages across open water at speed. The U.S. Navy Signal Corps refined this practice through the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a period that falls squarely within THE TRIPLE FIGHT. In an era defined by competing imperial ambitions and the rapid expansion of American naval power, the ability to communicate silently and securely across water was not merely practical — it was strategic.