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St George canton and striped field:
Blue barred St George:
by Martin Grieve by Christopher Southworth
From Sir William Slyngsby's "Relation of my Lord of Essex voyage to Cales",
a manuscript in the Duke of Northumberland's collection reproduced in
Navy Records Society's Naval Miscellany volume 1; edited by Sir Julian Corbett,
1902.
David Prothero, 6 May 2004
The stripes in question are a greenish-blue. However the intended colour must
be blue as exactly the same colour is used in the fleur-de-lis quarters of the
royal
standard. Perrin's account of the flags used on the expedition differs from the
Naval Miscellany that he is quoting, in two respects. The last sentence of the
penultimate paragraph on page 88 of "British Flags" reads; "The Vice- and
Rear-Admirals of his squadron flew at the fore the St George barred with blue
horizontally." I think that the words "and mizzen respectively" have been
omitted after the word "fore". In middle of the same paragraph, the flags of the
Vice- and Rear-Admirals of the Lord High Admiral's squadron are described as:
"..., a flag with striped field (red white and blue in seven horizontal stripes)
and the St George in the canton." The stripe which is described as "red" is not
the same colour as the cross of St George in the canton. It is brown. Perhaps
the heraldic stain tawny ?
The Editor of the Naval Miscellany, Sir Julian Corbett wrote, "The tinctures of
the squadronal flags of 1596 as here represented are difficult to account for.
The green and white are of course the ordinary Tudor colours. But the tincture
of the first two squadrons bear no relation, as might have been expected, to
those of the arms of Essex or Howard, or to those of any of the Queen's
standards."
To summarise the admiral's flags used in the 1596 Cadiz expedition. The four
English squadrons had the usual three ranks of admiral, vice-admiral and
rear-admiral, but the full admiral of each squadron was also a fleet admiral;
two were Joint Fleet Admirals, one was a Fleet Vice-Admiral and one was a Fleet
Rear-Admiral.
The Discovery Channel carried a
documentary account of the life and adventures of Sir Francis Drake. It showed
his vessel The Golden Hind sailing up the west coast of South America and
capturing several Spanish treasure ships off the coast of Peru. The flag flown
on the Golden Hind consisted of four broad green vertical stripes
separated by three broad white ones. In the canton was what looked like an
English flag, but the arms of the St George's Cross were much broader than one
commonly seas. Is there any info regarding this flag?
Ron Lahav, 26 December 2004
I have never come across an ensign of the period with vertical stripes (although
references are scant) but it would appear that the actual design was very much a
matter of personal choice? Green and white were, of course, the Tudor livery
colours and very popular in flags up to the Stuart accession, and what
information we have suggests that the canton of St George was (with the odd
exception) almost universal until 1707. The width of the arms of the St George
varied considerably, so no significance need be attached to their size. As a
matter of personal opinion only, I would have been inclined to have made the
stripes horizontal, but given the 16th Century's freedom of design there is no
real reason why such a flag should not be used? Indeed, I would not be at all
surprised if someone came up with an exact reference.
Christopher Southworth, 27 December 2004
In earlier times, a stern ensign was apparently something of a a luxury - a
special occasion flag - with what evidence we have listing only one per ship
(together with an ensign staff to fly it from), and there was certainly no
regulation or convention extant with regard to the colour, number or disposition
of the stripes. As examples, one source I have gives the naval ensign of c1623
as having 15 horizontal stripes alternately blue, white and yellow with a Cross
of St George in the canton, whereas the flag of the Honorable East India Company
(which may or may not date from the end of Queen Elizabeth's reign) is often
shown with thirteen - we have visual evidence that the striped ensign was in use
by HIEC ships in the 1660's, but no way of knowing whether the ensign ("auncient")
listed in an inventory of 1601 was of this type?
Christopher Southworth, 22 May 2006
Based on descriptions in Wilson's Flags at Sea
Wilson's Flags at Sea (1986) has a black and white image on page 15 and states on page 14:
"By the end of the (16th) century striped ensigns were common on European ships and those of English ships were often distinguished by a cross of St. George in a canton or overall. To judge from the scattered evidence of illustrations, the colors of ensigns varied from ship to ship: although red and white (the colors of the cross of St. George) and green and white (the Tudors' livery colors) were used, there seems sometimes to have been no significance in the colors chosen."Although no blue stripes are mentioned they may be implied by 'varied'; furthermore in old flag charts the colors blue and green were often confused with each others.
Before then English merchantmen had often flown the Union, and before 1606
the plain Cross of St. George. However, there is an older English flag with
a canton - the Tudor naval ensign, which was alternating green and white
horizontal stripes (the livery colours of the Tudor family) with St. George
in a square canton. I don't recall if there was a set number of stripes -
I suspect not, but nine rings a bell. There is a reproduction of this flag
displayed on the upper floor of the Victory Gallery of the Royal Naval Museum
in Portsmouth along with a number of other flags from the Royal Navy's
history.
Roy Stilling, 8 February 1996
Stern Ensigns were, according to Perrin, a rather late entrant on the English naval scene and he gives a date of around 1574. Prior to this a simple Cross of St George would be flown, or perhaps the Royal Arms in addition to a great number of streamers and other banners.
As far as the introduction of plain ensigns is concerned: Prior to c1625 English
Royal Naval Ensigns were striped in various colours (green and white, red, white
and blue, gold, white, and blue etc.,) with a white canton and red Cross of St
George (or occasionally with a Cross of St George overall). Merchant ensigns
were either striped with a St George canton (that of the Honourable East India
Company is a survival from that age) or a simple cross of St George on a white
field - if, that is, a stern ensign was carried at all, since a masthead flag of
St George was the older form of recognition. The exact date of introduction of
the red ensign is slightly uncertain, however, it is known that the
recommendation was made in 1625 and that the striped ensigns had become obsolete
by 1630 (for warships). The white and blue ensigns were introduced for all naval
ships by an Order of the Navy Commissioners in 1653.
Christopher Southworth, 24 February 2003
See also:
1620-1707 | 1707-1800 |
by Phil Nelson | by Phil Nelson |
William Crampton (1990) says on page 102 that when Charles I reserved the 1606 Union Flag for royal use in 1634,
English civil vessels at this time began to use the Red Ensign: a red flag with the cross of St. George on a white canton.
1620-1702 | 1707-1800 |
by Phil Nelson | by Phil Nelson |
1630-1702 | 1707-1800 |
by Phil Nelson | by Phil Nelson |
These are the command flags of the admirals in charge of the various divisions (or later of a particular grade within a given rank) were. The exception to this was the white, which carried a red cross (thus becoming the flag of St George) from around 1702. The order of seniority was changed in 1653 from red, blue and white to red, white and blue (which it still is). The white ensign also had a plain fly originally, but (for tactical reasons) a wide red cross (one-third of flag width) was added overall in 1702, and this was amended to its modern dimensions in 1707.
The system of grading admirals by colour ceased in 1864, and all admirals
thereafter flew a Cross of St George as a command flag. The general addition of
red balls to indicate rank came in later - the use of boat flags in other words
- because of the introduction of mastless ironclads.
Chris Southworth, 25 February 2003
In origin there were three naval squadrons, of the Red, White and Blue, and they took these colours from those of the Union Jack. The division was made in the 1680s, if I remember correctly. Because the Red Ensigns of England and Scotland had already been established as merchant flags a Red Ensign with the Union in the canton became the merchant flag of Great Britain upon Union in 1707. This led to potential confusion - was that ship a merchantman or a member of the red squadron?
In 1864 it was decided to end this anomaly. Henceforth the White Ensign was reserved to the Royal Navy, the Blue Ensign undefaced to the Royal Naval Reserve and defaced with the appropriate departmental or territorial badge to government service, and the Red Ensign to the 'merchant navy' (as the term is in Britain).
Now, as colonies became dominions they began to acquire navies. These all wore the White Ensign, but wore their appropriate territorial Blue ensign as a jack. The only geographical usage of the Red White and Blue that I know of, and which might be the source of this idea, was in the masthead pennant. Before 1864 this was St. George's Cross in them hoist and a fly of the Squadronal colour. After 1864 the home Royal Navy used the white pennant and colonial naval units used the blue. The red pennant was used briefly by the Royal Indian Marine between 1921 and 1928.
Source: H. Gresham Carr Flags of the World, 1961, pp 121-8.
Roy Stilling, 6 July 1996
About 1837, according to Colours of the Fleet, naval flags
were made-up in regulated sizes, but whilst the length was specified in
inches, the breadth was not specified because a breadth was a breadth -
it being the width of the standard fabric from which the flags were made.
In 1687, Samuel Pepys, Secretary of the Admiralty, and remembered for
his diaries, directed that flags should be half a yard (eighteen inches)
long for each breadth, which at that time was 11 inches, giving a ratio
of 11:18. Early in the eighteenth century the width of the material, as
manufactured, was reduced to ten inches, but the length was not adjusted,
so the proportion changed to 10:18 (5:9). Then about 1837, the width was
changed to 9 inches, again with no alteration to the length, resulting in
a ratio of 9:18 (1:2). How to get a badly proportioned flag without even
trying!
David Prothero, 3 April 1997
Which British ensign (red, white or blue) would have been used by the Royal Navy in the Caribbean towards the end of the 18th century?
William E. Hitchins, 2 May 2000
Any or all. It would depend on the flag officer in command. British flag officers up until 1864 were commissioned as admiral, vice admiral, or rear admiral of the red, white, or blue squadrons. A captain promoted to flag rank became a rear admiral of the blue, then moved up to rear admiral of the white, rear admiral of the red, vice admiral of the blue, vice admiral of the white, vice admiral of the red, and so on. If you can find out (from contemporary Navy Lists) what color admiral was commander in chief in the West Indies at the time, you'll know what color ensign the ships under his command flew - at least normally.
It's complicated by the facts that:
According to Siegel (1912) the distribution of the three colours over the squadrons seems to stem from an order by Lord Wimbledon in 1625. His source appears to be a book by Sir Julian S. Corbett, published as an e-book at http://www.gutenberg.org/files/16695/16695-8.txt. He quotes from the Lord of Wimbledon, 3 October 1625:
17. The whole fleet is to be divided into three squadrons: the admiral's squadron to wear red flags and red pennants on the main topmast-head; the vice-admiral's squadron to wear blue flags and blue pennants on the fore topmast-heads; the rear-admiral's squadron to wear white flags and white pennants on the mizen topmast-heads. [2]Corbett writes about a change in the instructions, but being unfamiliar with the expedition and not having a paper copy to easily compare reference, I'm unable to determine whether it were these instructions being drawn up at see, which would suggest such flags were always on board, or whether these were written well in advance and would have allowed the acquiring new flags.
The note is:
[2] This is the first known occasion of red, blue and white flags being used to distinguish squadrons, though the idea was apparently suggested in Elizabeth's time. See Navy Records Society, Miscellany, i. p. 30.
The Union Flag of 1606
could have theoretically led immediately to the adoption of red, white and blue
pennants but apparently didn't, and there is no record of the Stuart red and
gold being used on English ships? There are references in the 1620's to white
pennants, whilst the first mention of red, white and blue pennants (of which I
am aware) occurs in Boteler who wrote c1634, which suggests to me that the three
pennants were introduced during the years following 1625 and the introduction of
a red ensign (replacing the previous striped version) into the English Royal
Navy?. They were certainly formally established by an Order of March 1653, with
the common or tricolour pennant being introduced immediately following the
restoration (from memory in 1662).
Were the squadronal colours inspired by the Union? Perhaps they were, but I am
more inclined to think that the introduction of blue along with the traditional
English red and white was more co-incidental than deliberate.
Christopher Southworth, 22 October 2005
Nathan Lamm asked, "How was the white altered? I hadn't thought the large cross was added that early [1702]."
According to Perrin (1922), the change in
white command flags was contemporary with the change in the white ensign of
February 1702. At first admirals of the white squadron were instructed to fly
the Union as a command flag, however, by orders issued on 6 May 1702 this was
amended to a white flag "with a large St George's Cross". (On the evidence of
paintings) the cross had narrowed by 1710, and so it has remained to this day
(becoming the command flag of a full admiral c1870 with the increasing demise of
the sailing navy - confirmed in 1898).
Christopher Southworth, 29 June 2003
image by Tomislav Todorovic, 21 March 2007
Another striped ensign is shown on the map which William Baffin made during
his Arctic explorations in 1615 and which is nowadays kept in the British
Museum, London. It was used there to mark two landing points. Its field consists
of nine stripes in red, blue, red, green, red, blue, red, green and red colours,
respectively from top to bottom. The canton is charged with the Cross of St
George and is as wide as four stripes together.
Source: Istorija otkric'a i istraz<ivanja, vol. V: Poslednje granice Zemlje
Mladinska knjiga, Ljubljana, 1979
Original title: A History of Discovery and Exploration, vol. V: Earth's Last
Frontiers (C) 1973 Aldus Books Limited, London
Tomislav Todorovic, 21 March 2007