DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
901 M STREET SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060
Origins of the Twenty-One Gun Salute
The practice of firing gun salutes has existed for centuries. Early
warriors demonstrated their peaceful intentions by placing their weapons
in a position that rendered them ineffective. In early times, it was customary
for a ship entering a friendly port to discharge its cannon to demonstrate
that they were unloaded.
The rendering of gun salutes in odd numbers may be traced to the superstition
that odd numbers were considered lucky. Seven, for example, was held by
the earliest civilizations to have mystical powers. Seven gun salutes were
widely used. Forts ashore, which could store gunpowder more readily and
in greater quantity than on board ship, would sometimes fire three shots
for each shot fired afloat. Salutes with an even number of guns came to
signify that the captain or ship master had died on the voyage.
For many years, the number of guns fired for various purposes differed
from country to country. By 1730, the Royal Navy was prescribing 21 guns
for certain anniversary dates, although this was not mandatory as a salute
to the Royal family until later in the eighteenth century.
Several famous incidents involving gun salutes took place during the
American Revolution. On 16 November 1776, the Continental Navy brigantine
Andrew Doria, Captain Isaiah Robinson, fired a salute of 13 guns
on entering the harbor of St. Eustatius in the West Indies (some accounts
give 11 as the number). A few minutes later, the salute was returned by
9 (or 11) guns by order of the Dutch governor of the island. At the time,
a 13 gun salute would have represented the 13 newly-formed United States;
the customary salute rendered to a republic at that time was 9 guns. This
has been called the "first salute" to the American flag. About
three weeks before, however, an American schooner had had her colors saluted
at the Danish island of St. Croix. The flag flown by the Andrew Doria
and the unnamed American schooner in 1776 was not the Stars and Stripes,
which had not yet been adopted. Rather, it was the Grand Union flag, consisting
of thirteen alternating red and white stripes with the British Jack in the
union.
The first official salute by a foreign nation to the Stars and Stripes
took place on 14 February 1778, when the Continental Navy ship Ranger,
Captain John Paul Jones, fired 13 guns and received 9 in return from the
French fleet anchored in Quiberon Bay, France.
The U.S. Navy regulations for 1818 were the first to prescribe a specific
manner for rendering gun salutes (although gun salutes were in use before
the regulations were written down). Those regulations required that "When
the President shall visit a ship of the United States' Navy, he is to be
saluted with 21 guns." It may be noted that 21 was the number of states
in the Union at that time. For a time thereafter, it became customary to
offer a salute of one gun for each state in the Union, although in practice
there was a great deal of variation in the number of guns actually used
in a salute.
In addition to salutes offered to the President and heads of state,
it was also a tradition in the U.S. Navy to render a "national salute"
on 22 February (Washington's Birthday) and 4 July (the anniversary of the
Declaration of Independence).
A twenty-one gun salute for the President and heads of state, Washington's
Birthday, and the Fourth of July became the standard in the United States
Navy with the issuance of new regulations on 24 May 1842. Those regulations
laid out the specifics:
"When the President of the United States shall visit a
vessel of the navy, he shall be received with the following honors: The
yards shall be manned, all the officers shall be on deck in full uniform,
the full guard shall be paraded and present arms, the music shall play a
march, and a salute of twenty-one guns shall be fired. He shall receive
the same honors when he leaves the ship."
"Upon the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence of the United
States, the colors shall be hoisted at sunrise, and all the vessels of the
navy shall, when in port, be dressed, and so continue until the colors are
hauled down at sunset, if the state of the weather and other circumstances
will allow it. At sunrise, at meridian, and at sunset, a salute of twenty-one
guns shall be fired from every vessel in commission mounting six guns and
upwards."
"On the twenty-second day of February, the anniversary of the birth
of Washington, a salute of twenty-one guns shall be fired at meridian from
every vessel of the navy in commission mounting six guns and upwards."
Today, the national salute of 21 guns is fired in honor of a national
flag, the soverign or chief of state of a foreign nation, a member of a
reigning royal family, and the President, ex-President, and President-elect
of the United States. It is also fired at noon of the day of the funeral
of a President, ex-President, or President-elect, on Washington's Birthday,
Presidents Day, and the Fourth of July. On Memorial Day, a salute of 21
minute guns is fired at noon while the flag is flown at half mast.
Sources: Gardner W. Allen, A Naval History of the American Revolution
1: 159-60 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1913)
Naval Documents of the American Revolution 7 (Washington, D.C.: Naval
History Division, Dept. of the Navy, 1976)
Naval Regulations, Issued by Command of the President of the United States
of America, January 25, 1802 (Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press,
1970)
Rules, Regulations, and Instructions for the Naval Service of the United
States... (Washington, D.C.: E. De Kraft, 1818)
Rules and Regulations for the Navy..., 27th Cong. 3d Sess., H. Doc.
148 (Washington, D.C., 1843).
21 May 96