The 21-Gun International Salute
All personal salutes may be
traced to the prevailing use in earlier days: to ensure that
the saluter placed himself in an unarmed position, and virtually
in the power of the saluted. This may be noted in the dropping
of the point of the sword, presenting arms, firing cannon and
small arms, lowering sails, manning the yards, removing the
headdress or laying on oars.
![The Presidential Salute Guns Battery](/peth04/20041015153533im_/http://www.mdw.army.mil/0910SaluteGunsBattery.JPG)
Salute by gunfire is an ancient
ceremony. The British for years compelled weaker nations to
render the first salute; but in time, international practice
compelled "gun for gun" on the principle of equality
of nations. In the earliest days, seven guns was the recognized
British national salute.
Here again we see that the number seven
had a mystical significance. In the Eastern civilization, seven
was a sacred number: astronomy listed the seven planets, the
moon changed every seven days, the earth was created in seven
days, every seventh year was a sabbatical year, and the seven
times seventh year was a jubilee year.
Those early regulations stated that although
a ship would fire only seven guns, the forts ashore could fire
three shots (again the mystical three) to each one shot afloat.
In that day, powder of sodium nitrate was easier to keep on
shore than at sea. In time, when the quality of gunpowder improved
by the use of potassium nitrate, the sea salute was made equal
to the shore salute; 21 guns as the highest national honor.
Although for a period of time, monarchies received more guns
than republics, eventually republics gained equality. There
was much confusion because of the varying customs of maritime
states, but finally the British government proposed to the United
States a regulation that provided for "salutes to be returned
gun for gun." The British at that time officially considered
the international salute (to sovereign states) to be 21 guns,
and the United States adopted the 21 guns and "gun for
gun" return, Aug.18, 1875.
Previous to this time our national salute
had been variable; one gun for each state of the Union. This
practice was partly a result of usage, for John Paul Jones saluted
France with 13 guns at Quiberon Bay in 1778 when the Stars and
Stripes received its first salute. The practice was not officially
authorized until 1810.
When India was part of the British empire,
the king-emperor would receive an Imperial salute of 101 guns.
Unless rendered to a president or the flag of a republic, 21
guns is called a Royal Salute in the British Isles, and even
then it is called (colloquially) "royal" in the British
Commonwealth. In short, it would be said of the president of
the United States, if saluted in Canada, that he received a
"royal salute."
The United States also has an extra-special
ceremony known as the "Salute to the Nation," which
consists of one gun for each of the 50 states. The mimic war
is staged only at noon on the Fourth of July at American military
ports, although it has been given on a few other occasions,
such as the death of a president.
The Navy full-dresses ships and fires 21
guns at noon on the Fourth of July and the Feb. 22. On Memorial
Day, all ships and Naval stations fire a salute of 21-minute
guns and display the ensign at half-mast from 8 a.m. until completion
of the salute.
*Retired Navy Vice Adm.
Leland P. Lovette, Naval Customs Traditions and Usages, 4th
ed., (Banta Co: Menasha, Wisconsin, 1960).
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