Flags
Flags
Monday, 12 December 2016
In simplistic terms a ship is a British ship if it is registered in the United Kingdom or owned by a UK national, resident, or company and not on the register of some other country. As such it falls within the ambit of the Merchant Shipping Act 1995 and is entitled to fly the Red Ensign. The correct terminology is that an ensign is worn by a vessel or flown in a vessel.
The Red Ensign is the senior British Ensign, and as noted above may by flown in any British ship.
Flag experts (vexillogists) maintain that the use of the term “Union Jack” is inadmissible unless speaking of the Union Flag when it is actually on a jack staff. However it is long since officially accepted that the terms Union Flag and Union Jack may be used interchangeably. The only vessels actually allowed to fly the Union Flag at the jack staff are commissioned vessels of the armed forces so such use would be a rare sight for most people. Other than that the only occasion when a Union Flag may be flown on a ship (at the masthead) is when Her Majesty is on board.
Other than the requirement that important flags such as courtesy flags should not be dwarfed by lesser ones there are no specific rules about flag size relative to the boat, and it is simply a matter of choosing something that “looks right”. However it is notable that the ensigns on Dutch and Swiss craft often tend to be larger than those used by other nationals.
Dutch law allows a foreign owner of a Dutch registered ship to fly an ensign denoting his nationality rather than the ship’s registry at the stern. However this is particular to the Netherlands and the correct international rules apply once such a craft crosses the border out of the Netherlands. I do know of one instance where an owner was made to change his ensign before he was allowed to continue following an inspection of his vessel in France.
The EU flag - 12 gold stars in a circle on a blue ground - is not a legal ship’s ensign or courtesy flag, even with the addition of the national flag in the corner. It is purely decorative.
In the UK ships “dress overall” to celebrate special events, using standard signal flags in a recommended sequence which avoids offensive words in other languages, and craft without signal flags might use simple coloured bunting.
When we traded with grain on the Thames the Thames Water Authority which controlled the non-tidal part of the river would not even allow our barges to have the name of the mill concerned on the tarpaulin covers as they viewed that as an advertisement, but in France the commercial skippers go to town with an array of flags gleaned from the bunker ships, chandlers and other suppliers advertising their products and no-one to gainsay them. Several major barging centres such as Douai in the north and St. Jean de Losne on the Saône in Burgundy have a “Pardon de la Batellerie” when the boat people receive the blessing of the Bishop, and the gathered commercial vessels will all be decked out in their glory. Barge family weddings is another occasion when the finery is on display.
link to Tam’s RYA Book of CEVNI Regulations and DVD Barge Handling in France
(All text and photographs copyright © Tam & Di Murrell unless otherwise credited)