A Sailor''s Woolie depicts a British Royal Navy Ship and a Carrier Pigeon Approaching Bearing A Letter, Circa 1870 The ship, probably a Third Rate battleship, is nearing land with a fortification flying a British flag. She flies a Red Ensign and a red banner which means she is homeward-bound. ;The woolie is framed in a bird''s-eye maple frame. Dimensions: frame, 22 ½ x 32 inches. Reference: (http://warandgame.blogspot.com/2007/10/homing-carrier-pigeons-in-war.html) The history of the use of carrier pigeons in warfare is indeed a varied and interesting one, with a long and illustrious history. It is believed that the use of carrier pigeons as a messenger service had it origins in antiquity – in 1150 A.D., the Sultan of Baghdad strapped capsules filled with papyrus sheets to the leg or back feathers of pigeons, and used them as messengers. Carrier-Pigeons were also used over three thousand years ago by the Egyptians, Persians and Romans; they were used as recently as 1990, by the Iraqi Army during the First Gulf War. ;....Carrier-pigeons had had a strong, albeit unofficial, tradition in the British military: carrier-pigeons were used to deliver the news of Wellington’s victory at Waterloo before the official (horse-mounted) couriers. However, in 1908 the British Admiralty decided to cease using carrier-pigeons and replace them with wireless sets. However, this was an optimistic rather than realistic endeavour and at the outbreak of WWI, the practical uses of carrier-pigeons became apparent. An amusing side rrelates to Lt. William S. Sims, who had served as an American naval attache to France during the time of the Spanish American War. An astute observer of foreign naval developments, Sims sent back voluminous reports on everything from armor thickness to the French use of carrier pigeons. (On that latter topic he jokingly inquired on the possibility of crossbreeding a pigeon with a talking parrot to create an even more efficient messenger bird!)

Antique Textiles
Antique Textile Artwork