Chapter V: Colours of Distinction (2)

In 1634 the inconveniences arising from the fact that the king's ships and merchant ships wore the same flags had become so pronounced that a Proclamation was issued withdrawing the right to use the Union flag for the merchant ships and confining those of England to the St George's flag and those of Scotland to the St Andrew. No mention is made of any poop ensign, from which it may be inferred that this flag was not yet in common use among merchantmen. By the time of the Commonwealth the striped ensign appears to have gone out of use, and the merchantmen seem to have gradually adopted the red ensign introduced into the fleet in 1625. The order of 1649 requiring the ships in the service of the State to bear the St George's flag only does not seem to have been applied to merchant ships, and from a reference in 1656 to the flying of the "English Collers" improperly by a merchant ship lying at the Brill, when these colours were worn "with the Cross downewards" (i.e. the flag being inverted in contempt) it is clear that the English ensign at that date had the cross in a canton, and was not the plain St George's flag. The use of the red ensign was for the first time legally recognised as the distinctive flag of a British merchant ship in a Proclamation of 1674[327], in which the colours are expressly laid down as being

those usually heretofore worn on merchants' ships, viz: the Flag
and Jack white with a red cross (commonly called Saint George's
Cross) passing right through the same; and the Ensign red with a
like cross in a canton white at the upper corner thereof next the
staff.

This order definitely abolished the use of any striped ensign, if any such still survived outside of the East India Company's ships. The red and white striped ensign[328] of that Company, which was probably adopted on its formation in 1600, remained, however, unchanged in spite of the Proclamation, and in 1676 the Commander-in-Chief in the Downs drew Pepys' attention to the fact. In his reply of the 20th November Pepys wrote:

For that of the different colours assumed by the East India Company
and ordinarily worn in their ships, I am very glad you take notice
of it, though it be not of any so near resemblance to the King's as
to create any mistake, which some have heretofore offered at, yet
it being contrary to the letter of the proclamation it will be fit
that his Majesty's pleasure be known in it[329].

Pepys mentioned the matter to Sir John Bankes, one of the principal members of the Company, urging him to get the use of this flag regularised, and in the December of this same year he wrote to Bankes as follows:

I have fresh occasion of repeating what I lately mentioned to you
about colours worn by the ships belonging to the East India Company
different from what the merchant ships of other his Majesty's
subjects generally do, and by his Majesty's proclamation of 18th
Sept. 1674 ... are bound to use, without any provisional exception
made therein on behalf of the said Company; for want thereof, not
only his Majesty's commander-in-chief in the Downs but others of
his captains and officers are under an obligation of interrupting
your ships in the wearing the said colours, and have several of
them applied themselves to me at sundry times (and now lately) for
direction therein, with answer still given them by me in favour of
the Company as knowing their and their predecessors' usage in that
matter, and the moment it may be of to them that the same should
be continued; but, forasmuch as it cannot be thought fit for me
to remain under a constant accountableness for any behaviour of
his Majesty's officers different from his pleasure signified by
a proclamation, I desire you will please to take an opportunity
of mentioning this thing to my honoured friends of your Company,
to the end that (in case their service be indeed concerned in
the continuance of this their usage) they may take some way of
making their desires therein known to his Majesty, that so what
he shall think fit to indulge to them upon it may be done by an
order pursuant to the said proclamation, and his officers thereby
indemnified in their obedience of it[330].

Apparently the matter was adjusted to the satisfaction of Pepys, for the striped flag[331] continued to be used by the Company until the year 1824, when, on the question of its legal position being again raised, its use as an ensign was discontinued, though it remained in existence until 1863 on the Company's ships as a jack or signal flag[332].

The flags laid down for the merchant ships by the Proclamation of 1674 were confirmed by further Proclamations in July, 1694, and December, 1702, with the additional restriction that such ships were expressly forbidden to wear "any kind of pendant whatsoever." As these proclamations were addressed to all "loving subjects" they were presumably binding on the Scots as well as on the English, but the use of the St Andrew canton certainly persisted in the ships of the Scots navy, and therefore presumably in the merchant ships of Scotland.

On the legislative union between England and Scotland in 1707 a further Proclamation was issued, which contained a fundamental difference. In the Proclamation of 1674, 1694, and 1702 the merchant ships had been forbidden to use any other colours than "those usually worn," but they were not expressly ordered to wear any colours at all. In the Proclamation of 1707, under which the Union replaced the St George in the canton of the red ensign, a clause was inserted

strictly charging and commanding the Masters of all Merchant Ships
and vessels belonging to any of our subjects, whether employed
in Our service or otherwise, and all other persons whom it may
concern, to wear the said ensign on board their ships or vessels.

They were further forbidden to wear "any Flags, Jacks, Pendants or Colours made in imitation of ours, or any kind of Pendant whatsoever, or any other ensign than the ensign described." This did not prohibit the use of the St George's jack on the bowsprit, which was expressly recognised by the _King's Regulations_ for the navy[333] as being, together with the red ensign, the appropriate colours for a British merchant ship.

In consequence of the legislative union with Ireland, a proclamation was issued on 1st January, 1801, substituting the new form of the Union in the canton of the ensign, but leaving the existing regulations unaltered. The provision for the use of the St George's jack by merchant ships last appeared in the 1808 edition of the _Regulations and Instructions relating to His Majesty's Service at Sea_ in the following terms:

Merchant Ships are to carry a Red Ensign with the Union Jack in a
canton, at the upper corner next the staff, and a White Jack with
a Red Cross, commonly called St. George's Cross, passing quite
through it.

How far such regulations, which in the preamble are expressly stated to be drawn up for the "Naval Service at Sea," can have been legally binding on the Mercantile Marine is a matter for lawyers to decide, but it seems probable that the merchant service did not generally observe the regulation as to the jack, for in the next edition (that of 1824) all reference to it is omitted. From that date the red ensign alone has been the legal national colours of a British merchant vessel. It must be displayed

(_a_) On a signal being made from one of H.M. ships or from a vessel under the command of an officer of the Royal Navy on full pay.

(_b_) On entering or leaving any foreign port.

(_c_) If the vessel is of 50 tons gross tonnage or more, on entering or leaving any British port.

Merchant ships commanded by officers on the retired list of the Royal Navy or by officers of the Royal Naval Reserve may, on certain conditions laid down in the _King's Regulations_, be allowed to wear a blue ensign instead of a red one.

No British merchantman may, under penalty of £500 and confiscation of the colours, wear any other "distinctive national colours," nor any other flags or pendants in any way resembling those of H.M. ships, but there is nothing in the Merchant Shipping Act to prevent any such ship from wearing any fancy flags that it likes--even if some covert disloyalty is intended thereby--provided that such flags are not "distinctively" national and do not imitate the flags of the navy, and that it displays the red ensign upon the proper occasions.

The law on the subject of the flags to be flown by British merchantmen was, as will have been seen, sufficiently explicit, and the flags allowed by no means inferior in dignity or traditional sentiment to those withheld; nevertheless, the merchant skipper, until a comparatively recent period which may be dated roughly as the beginning of the reign of Queen Victoria, seems to have taken an especial delight in attempting to evade the law. Attempts to fly the Union jack have already been sufficiently illustrated. Another idiosyncracy was the flying of the blue instead of the red ensign. St Lo dealt with this at Jamaica in 1728 by an ingenious device, that of using the Crown's right of impressment to deprive such ships of one of the most important members of the crew: "rather than be troubling their Lordships with complaints of taking them away, I have found out another expedient, which is to get a Carpenter or Caulker from them, so that I hope in a little time to bring them to better reason."

In 1819 the master of a ship in home waters who had persisted in flying a blue ensign and pendant although repeatedly fired at, was prosecuted by the Admiralty, but upon his appeal the prosecution was dropped with the hope that "it will be understood that any future violation of the law will be punished strictly." Two other ships were, in the following year, prosecuted for flying pendants, and in 1821 the attention of the Commanders-in-Chief was called to the existing regulations "relative to Colours to be worn by private ships which it has been apprehended have not been generally attended to."

Not long after this date the custom of flying at a masthead a "house" flag denoting the ownership of the vessel became general, and perhaps for this reason or because they were living in a more prosaic age the captains of merchantmen ceased to give further trouble by attempts to display illegal colours. There are now many hundreds of house flags[334] in existence, but nearly all of them have come into use since 1840. An older practice with some of the larger merchantmen, which seems to date from the early years of the eighteenth century, was to fly the arms of the town in which the master lived at the mizen, and the arms of the town where the freighter resided at the fore. Some passenger ships plying on regular lines (such as the cross-Channel steamers) fly at the fore the national flag of the country to and from which they sail.

The somewhat anomalous position of the ships of the East India Company, many of which were given Letters of Marque in order to regularise their position as combatants if they came into conflict with ships of native states (or possibly with those of other European powers) in Indian waters, has already been remarked. No trace can be found of any formal grant of the Company's flag, and it seems most probable that it was really the survivor of an early striped ensign such as many ships, men-of-war or merchant, wore in the latter part of the reign of Elizabeth and the early part of the reign of James. There was, however, an early precedent of the grant of a special flag to specified merchantmen to denote a privileged position. In 1581 Elizabeth, anxious to encourage the trade then being opened up with Turkey, granted a Charter of Incorporation for a term of seven years to Sir Edward Osborn and three other merchants, who might add other Englishmen, not exceeding twelve in all, to their number. These were allowed "to set and place in the tops of their ships and other vessels the Arms of England with the red crosse over the same, as heretofore they have used the red crosse, any matter or thing to the contrary notwithstanding." On its expiry in 1588 this charter was not renewed, but in 1593 Osborn and others were incorporated in a company to be known as the Governor and Company of Merchants of the Levant, and they were "to set and place in the toppes of their ships or other vessels the Armes of England with the redde crosse in white over the same as heretofore they have used." It would appear from these words that the red cross in the original flag was bordered with white, although it is not so described in the earlier charter. The Charter of 1593 was found defective, and a new one was issued in 1601 which contained the same clause, the name of the company being changed to the "Governor and Company of Merchants of London trading into the Levant Seas." On the death of Elizabeth this charter lapsed, and it was not until the 14th December, 1605, that another charter was issued. This charter, which remained in force until 1825, omits all reference to the flag. Possibly James already had in mind the Union flag that was established early in the next year, and indeed the design of the Union flag is distinctly reminiscent of the old Levant Company's flag--the banner of Scotland taking the place of the Arms of England. The omission from this charter of any provision for a special flag cannot have been other than intentional, nevertheless the ships of the company seem to have continued to use the old flag in Levant waters, for in 1625 Sir Thomas Roe, then Ambassador to Turkey, issued a general proclamation "To all Captaynes, Maisters, pursers and officers of any English shipps and all other his Ma^{tie} Subjects serving or sailing in them within y^e Levant Seas," ordering "that from hence forth they, nor none of them presume to use or beare any other flagg or coulers than y^e usuall flagge and Red Crosse of England, or St Andrewe of Scotland, neither in the Levant Seas nor in any Port of the Grand Signior's Dominion, upon what pretence soever." From this time the "usual flag and Red Cross of England" became very prominent in those waters and gradually replaced the French flag as protector of the lives and goods of foreign merchants trading within the Sultan's dominions. The various capitulations by which this was effected were consolidated in 1675 by a Treaty of Commerce made between Mahomet IV and Charles II[335], which, among other things, provided "that the Merchants of Spain, Portugal, Ancona, Seville, Florence, Catalonia, and all sorts of Dutch and other foreign Merchants ... might always come under the Flag and Protection of the Ambassadors or Consuls of England."

There were other trading companies that, like the East India Company, had or assumed the right to fly a special flag, in this case probably only as a jack. One was the Guinea, or Africa, Company, the ships of which from the time of Charles II onwards flew a St George's flag with a chequered border of two rows of red and white squares. This practice probably originated with the third company, chartered in 1662, and of course expired on the dissolution of the fourth company in 1752. Another was the so-called Scottish East India Company which started its short life in 1695 and is best known from its disastrous attempt to colonise the Isthmus of Darien. Its emblem of the rising sun (Plate X, fig. 4) indicated the dawn of hopes that were doomed to an early eclipse.

Special forms of the red ensign may be flown by merchant ships of three of the British Dominions, viz. Canada, Australia and New Zealand. This privilege was first granted to Canada in the year 1892, the badge of Canada without the Crown (see Plate XII, fig. 7) being placed in the centre of the fly.

In 1899 merchant ships registered in New Zealand were authorised to wear a red ensign having in the fly four white stars, representing the constellation of the Southern Cross. In this connection it may be remarked that in 1834 the British resident in New Zealand proposed that the New Zealanders should have a national flag. Three patterns were sent over by the Governor of New South Wales, and by a narrow majority the chiefs voted for the one represented in Plate XII, fig. 1. New Zealand was then an independent country; in 1839 it was added to the British dominions and after the grant of its Constitution in 1852 this flag appears to have been dropped, to be subsequently revived by the Shaw Savill and Albion Shipping Company, which now uses it as a "house flag."

A red ensign for Australian merchant vessels was first approved in 1903. It had a six-pointed white star (indicating the six states) in the centre of the lower canton and five smaller stars, representing the Southern Cross, in the fly. In 1908 the large star under the Union had the number of its points increased to seven (see the similar blue ensign in Plate XII, fig. 3).

No other dominion or colony is at present allowed the privilege of "defacing" the red ensign, but any colonial merchant vessel is at liberty to carry, in addition to the red ensign, a flag containing the badge of the colony, provided that such a flag is not "distinctive national colours" (i.e. does not contain or imitate the Union).

A merchant ship commanded by a retired officer of the Royal Navy or by an officer of the Royal Naval Reserve may fly the blue ensign under Admiralty Warrant if the crew includes ten officers or men belonging to the Reserve. The formation of a reserve among officers of the merchant service was first authorised by Act of Parliament in 1861, and in the following year it was decided that a merchant ship commanded by such an officer might fly a blue ensign with a crown and the letters R.N.R. in the fly; the abolition of the squadronal colours of the navy in 1864, however, enabled the blue ensign undefaced by a device to be assigned to the Reserves, and the device was thereafter omitted.

(v) PLEASURE CRAFT

For the introduction into Great Britain of craft built solely for pleasure and large enough to navigate the open sea or the estuaries of large rivers we need look no further back than the restoration of Charles II. From the earlier years of the seventeenth century the wealthy inhabitants of the Netherlands had included among their recreations the sailing of specially designed boats upon their numerous waterways. With the presentation to Charles in 1660 of two of the Dutch yachts we may, for all practical purposes, date the inauguration of this form of recreation in England. The fashion set by the King and his brother gradually spread among the wealthier classes.

Except those belonging to the King, all such pleasure craft would legally form part of the mercantile marine, and in the absence of special permission to the contrary could only wear the flags appropriated to that service. Yet from an early date the owners attempted to appropriate to themselves some special distinction. The failure of the Governor of Dover in 1676 to obtain the King's permission to fly the Union jack on his private yacht has already been noticed. This failure did not deter others from assuming such a right. In 1686 the question of the liberty taken by private yachts to wear the King's jack without license came before the Navy Board, and Pepys, who was present, has left us the note upon the motives leading to such evasions of the law, which has been already considered in Chapter III (page 69).

The yachts belonging to James II (who reserved the Office of Lord High Admiral to himself throughout his reign) flew, in addition to the royal standard at the masthead and Union jack, a special red ensign, with St George's cross in the canton, and in the fly an anchor and cable surmounted by the royal crown.

The first attempt to democratise yachting and to form a club to facilitate its enjoyment came, oddly enough, from the Irish, a nation that has never, in spite of its natural advantages, shown any marked liking for the sea. Yet by the formation of the Cork Water Club in 1720 Ireland took a lead that was not followed in England for nearly a hundred years. The Club adopted as their distinctive flag the Union jack with the harp on a green escutcheon in the centre, as in the jack of the Protectorate; this escutcheon was also placed on the Union in the canton of their ensign. Dissolved in 1765, this Club was resuscitated in 1806, and was the progenitor of the existing Royal Cork Yacht Club.

The first corporate body of yachtsmen to be formed in England was the Royal Yacht Club (now the Royal Yacht Squadron) founded at Cowes in 1815, when the close of the long war with France rendered the Channel safe for such a form of amusement. As a distinctive flag, this Club chose a white ensign with the Union in the canton but without the St George's cross in the fly. For six years the Admiralty took no notice of the breach of the law involved in flying such a flag, but in 1821 the number of yachts had so increased that the Commander-in-Chief at Portsmouth drew attention to the fact that a large number of small craft were flying an unauthorised flag. He received instructions to enforce the law, and the Club had to content itself with the legal red ensign. In 1829, however, the Admiralty granted the yachts of the club permission to wear "a St George's or white ensign," and the club thereupon adopted the modern white ensign which its members still fly.

This was followed in 1831 by the grant of a blue ensign to the Royal Northern Yacht Club; a white ensign with "the Arms of Ireland" in the lower canton next the staff to the Royal Irish Yacht Club; and a formal grant of the red ensign with "the Union (with the harp and crown on a green field in the centre) in the corner" to the Royal Cork Yacht Club.

In 1832 a newly formed Irish club, the "Western Yacht Club," which had assumed a green ensign, approached the Admiralty with a view to the confirmation of this flag on the ground that "a white ensign has been granted to the 'Royal Yacht Club,' a red ensign to the 'Royal Cork,' a blue ensign to the 'Royal Northern,' and as the only unoccupied national flag we have assumed the green ensign[336]." They were informed "You may have as the flag for this Club either a red, white or blue ensign, with such device within as you may point out, but that their Lordships cannot sanction the introduction of a new colour to be worn by British ships." They then chose a white St George's ensign with "a crown in the centre surrounded with a wreath of shamrock."

There followed other grants of the white ensign, plain or with the St George's cross in the fly and with or without special badges.

In 1842 the Royal Yacht Squadron, moved by frequent complaints of the improper conduct in foreign waters of British yachts, erroneously supposed, from the fact of their having a white ensign, to belong to that club, asked that they might have "the sole permission to carry the white ensign," at the same time suggesting that the other clubs should have a blue one. The Admiralty acceded to this request and issued the following circular letter:

22 July 1842.

Sir

My Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty having, by their order
of the 6th June 1829, granted permission to the Royal Yacht
Squadron, as having been the first recognised club, and enjoying
sundry privileges, to wear the White St George's ensign and other
distinctions, that their vessels might be generally known, and
particularly in Foreign ports, and much inconvenience having arisen
in consequence of other Yacht Clubs having been allowed by this
Board to wear somewhat similar colours, my Lords have cancelled the
warrant enabling the ___________ to wear the white ensign, and have
directed me to send you herewith a warrant, authorizing the vessels
belonging to the club to wear the blue ensign of Her Majesty's
fleet, with the distinguishing marks of the club, as heretofore
worn on the white ensign; and as it is an ensign not allowed to be
worn by merchant vessels, my Lords trust that it will be equally
acceptable to the members of the club.

This letter was sent to the Royal Western, the Royal Thames, the Royal Southampton, the Royal Eastern and the Gibraltar Yacht Clubs and to the Wharncliffe Sailing Club, but from a misapprehension the Royal Western Yacht Club of Ireland, once incorporated with its English namesake, was overlooked. In 1853 this point was raised in Parliament, but no action was then taken. In 1858, however, the exemption of the Irish Club was again made a grievance by other clubs desiring the same privilege, and the warrant of the Irish Club was then cancelled. The outcry raised led to the papers connected with the grants of the white ensign being laid before the House of Commons in 1859[337].

From that date the privilege of flying the white ensign has remained the prerogative of the Royal Yacht Squadron, a privilege enhanced in 1864 by its becoming the distinctive ensign of the Royal Navy.

At the present day forty-four clubs have the privilege of flying the blue ensign, either plain or "defaced" with some distinctive badge, and eight are allowed to "deface" the red ensign with their special badge. Other clubs may fly only the ordinary red ensign of the Mercantile Marine.

FOOTNOTES:

[297] See Maspero, _Popular Stories of Ancient Egypt_, p. 231, and Torr, _Ancient Ships_, Cambridge, 1895, p. 60.

[298] See p. 143.

[299] Stirling Maxwell, _Don John of Austria_, 1883, I, 387.

[300] Corbett, _Fighting Instructions_ 1530-1816 (N. R. S.), 1905, p. 27: "Even Howard's great fleet of 1588 had twice been in action with the Armada before it was so much as organised into Squadrons."

[301] It was Henry who first organised navy administration by the institution of the Navy Board in 1546.

[302] _S. P. D. Henry VIII_, CCV, fol. 163.

[303] Corbett, _Drake and the Tudor Navy_, II, 203.

[304] _Ibid._ II, 203.

[305] Rules in Sir John Hawkins his tyme, _S. P. D. Jas I_, CLVII, 67.

[306] Chardges in equipping & setting forth xvj^{en} of her Ma^{ts} shippes and pinnaces to the seas. Pipe Off. Dec. Acct. 2232.

[307] See Arts 16 and 31 of the Instructions (_Naval Miscellany_ (N. R. S.), vol. I). The greenish edge in the accompanying diagrams is apparently the artist's shading.

[308] _S. P. D. Eliz._ CCLIX, 48, printed in Oppenheim's _Naval Tracts of Sir Wm. Monson_ (N. R. S.), IV, 202 et seq.

[309] Oppenheim, _Monson Tracts_ (N. R. S.), IV, 209.

[310] _S. P. D. Chas I_, V, 31.

[311] See Plate IX, figs. 3-6, 8 and 9. In the earlier ensigns, towards the end of Elizabeth's reign, the stripes were sometimes diagonal, and different designs appear to have been used to distinguish individual ships, much as the ensigns were used to distinguish regiments ashore.

[312] I.e. as signals.

[313] Corbett, _Fighting Instructions_ (N. R. S.), p. 83.

[314] "Observed the Gibraltar and Culloden firing at us, probably by mistaking our St George's Ensign for the national flag, on which we cut off the fly." (Master's Log, _vide_ Sturges Jackson, _Logs of the Great Sea Fights_ (N. R. S.), p. 130.)

[315] Nicolas, _Despatches and Letters of Lord Nelson_, VII, p. 104. In a footnote (the volume was published in 1846) Nicolas says: "It may be hoped that the time is not distant when the anomalous distinctions of Blue, White and Red Admirals will be abolished, so that St George's banner will be the only flag borne by _all_ British Admirals."

[316] I.e. a narrow pendant with striped red, white and blue fly.

[317] Low, _History of the Indian Navy_, II, 201. A similar red pendant has recently been approved as the flag of the Director of the Royal Indian Marine.

[318] Order of the Governor in Council quoted by Low, _History of the Indian Navy_, II, 570.

[319] This word first appears about 1650, and soon replaced the earlier term.

[320] Marsden, _Law and Custom of the Sea_ (N. R. S.), II, 412.

[321] About two-thirds, instead of less than one-fourth.

[322] E.g. in 1636 the people of Calais stoned the Dover mail packet which carried the Union flag at the stern, "rending the said Unite coullers."

[323] See Plate V, fig. 7.

[324] See p. 70.

[325] B. M. _Add. MS._ 12206.

[326] Plate IX, fig. 8.

[327] See p. 68.

[328] See Plate IX, fig. 6. The number of stripes varied from nine to thirteen, the odd numbers being red.

[329] Tanner, _Catalogue of the Pepysian MSS._ (N. R. S.), III, 325.

[330] Tanner, _Catalogue of the Pepysian MSS._ (N. R. S.), III, 334.

[331] There are, however, instances during the eighteenth century of these ships flying a red or blue ensign.

[332] The Union replaced the St George's cross in the canton; and the St George's cross appears to have been introduced into the fly, by adding a vertical bar and thickening the middle stripe, about 1820. (See Plate X, fig. 11.)

[333] First issued in a collected form in 1731.

[334] See _Lloyds Book of House Flags and Funnels_.

[335] _A General Collection of Treatys of Peace and Commerce_ (1732), III, 282.

[336] _Parl. Paper_ 1859, III, Sess. 2.

[337] _Parl. Paper 1859_, III, Sess. 2. Further particulars of the various devices adopted by the clubs will be found therein.