'I will not abandon you': Belvedere yacht club’s flags signal community support amid pandemi

As a sign of solidarity with the community amid the coronavirus pandemic, members of the San Francisco Yacht Club have hoisted a trio of signal flags above the club that mean “I will stand by to assist you” — inspired by a story of a heroic rescue in the Atlantic Ocean in 1926. The flags were raised late last month and will remain until the clubhouse, which closed in mid-March under the county and state shelter-in-place orders, can open again, officials say. The idea was derived by Staff Commodore James Robinson from a story he read at the San Francisco Maritime Museum about the crew of the SS President Roosevelt ocean liner, who flew signal flags meaning “I will not abandon you” as they stood by a British cargo steamship, SS Antinoe, as it sank during a 1926 winter storm.

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