Flags of (or Associated with) the British Navy
c.1890
Author: F. Edward Hulme
Image source: Hulme, Plate X1 [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
[W]e have at the present time the white ensign, Fig. 95 [top left], the special flag of the Royal Navy; the blue ensign, Fig. 96 [second from top left], the distinguishing flag of the Royal Naval Reserve; and the red ensign, Fig. 97 [middle left], the flag of the Merchant Service, each with the Union in the upper corner next the mast. [Hulme 40; commentary continues below]
Text from Hulme transcribed and formatted, with interpolations in square brackets, by Jacqueline Banerjee. You may use the image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the Internet Archive and the University of California Libraries and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.
Different Government Departments have their special flags also. Thus the Transport Service has the blue ensign with a golden anchor, placed horizontally, in the fly, while the Victualling Department has the blue ensign again, but this time as shown in Fig. 98 [just below middle left], with two crossed anchors. On the blue ensign of the Board of Trade is found in the fly a white circle, and within this a ship in full sail (see Fig. 105 [second from top right]). The Ordnance Department flag, represented in Fig. 108 [bottom right], bears a shield with cannons and cannon balls upon it, while vessels and boats employed on submarine mining service are authorized to carry the blue ensign with — as its special badge — a hand issuing from a mural crown, and grasping a thunderbolt. The Telegraph branch of the Post-Office has a very striking device: a representation of Father Time with his hour glass smashed by lightning. The red ensign is employed by the Custom House and the Excise, in the first case having, as we see in Fig. 107 [just above bottom right], a golden crown in the fly, and, in the second, a crown and star. The flag of the Admiralty is a very striking one (Fig. 99 [bottom left]). This association of the anchor with the Admiralty is a very natural one; we see it not only in our English flag, but in those of France, Italy, Germany, Russia, etc. Our Admiralty flag is hoisted on any ship when the Commissioners of the Admiralty are on board, and it is also hoisted at the fore top-gallant mast of every ship on which the Queen may be on board. Vessels carrying Her Majesty's mail fly on the fore-mast a white burgee [a pennant identifying a non-naval boating organization], having in its centre a crown, and on one side of it the word "Royal" and on the other " Mail"; the words Royal Mail and the crown being in red on the white field of the flag.
The White Ensign, Fig. 95 [top left again], the special flag of Her Majesty's Navy, is, by very exceptional privilege, allowed to be flown by the Royal Yacht Squadron. This distinction was conferred on that Club in the year 1829, the Club itself being established in 1812. In the old days, when the Royal Navy used the red, white, and blue ensigns, the red ensign was of the highest dignity; and it was this from 1821 to 1829 that the Royal Yacht Squadron flew, but, as the red ensign was also used by merchant vessels, they adopted in 1829 the white ensign as being more distinctive. In 1842 the Admiralty drew up a Minute that no warrant should be issued to any other yacht club to fly the white ensign, and that those privileged Clubs that already had it must henceforth forego it. Copies of the minute were accordingly sent to the Royal Western of England, Royal Thames, Royal Southern, and some two or three other clubs, but, by some oversight, the Royal Western of Ireland was overlooked, and that Club continued to use the white ensign until the mistake was discovered by the Admiralty in the year 1857. Since that date the Royal Yacht Squadron, which has always been under the special patronage of Royalty, has been alone in its use. Its value is purely sentimental; it carries no substantial privilege. [Hulme 70-71]
Note: The pennants numbered 100-103, down the middle of this plate, are (from top to bottom) those flown by Ranelagh, Yare, River Thames and Dublin Bay Yacht Clubs (see Hulme 150).
Bibliography
Hulme, F. Edward. Flags of the World: Their History, Blazonry and Associations.. London: F. Warne, c. 1890. Internet Archive, from a copy in the University of California Libraries. Web. 3 January 2023
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Created 4 January 2024