NAVA News 33--Bremen

NAVIGATION - LOST? CLICK HERE FOR AN OUTLINE OF THE ENTIRE NAVA SITE

NAVA News 33/2

"THE BREMEN ENSIGN ON A U.S. FRIGATE":
STRIPED RANK FLAGS IN THE U.S. NAVY, 1870-1876

by Joseph McMillan

Vice Admiral's Flag

The flying of a flag at the masthead to designate the vessel of a fleet commander is more than twice as old as the United States Navy, dating well back into the Middle Ages, so it is not surprising that among the earliest actions of the founders of the U.S. Navy was the development of rank flags to denote the flagship of the commander of a squadron of warships. From before the War of 1812 until 1858, these flags were limited to the commodore's broad pennant, a swallowtailed flag with stars matching the number of states in the Union, white on a blue field. If there was more than one commodore present, the second senior flew white stars on a red field and any others used blue stars on white. Shortly after the creation of the rank of "flag

officer" in 1857, rectangular flags of solid blue, red, or white were introduced. The same solid colored flags were used for the newly created grades of rear admiral (1862) and vice admiral (1864), the two grades being distinguished only by the masthead at which the flag was displayed--the fore for the vice admiral and the mizzen for the rear admiral--in accordance with European custom.

In the final weeks of the Civil War, a new edition of the Regulations for the Government of the United States Navy was issued, introducing the modern system of designating flag officers' ranks with flags showing the number of stars matching the rank insignia on their uniforms. The 1867 signal book implementing these regulations depicts flags that look virtually the same as those used today. In the use of white stars on blue or red and blue stars on white, these flags (and the commodore's broad pennant) followed the well established tradition of the U.S. Navy; the only difference was that the number of stars now represented the rank of the officer rather than the number of states in the Union.

It is surprising to find, therefore, that a mere four years after they were introduced, these starred rank flags were abolished along with the three-color system for designating relative seniority. On December 23, 1869, a Navy Department circular order was issued, with effect from January 1, 1870, introducing a series of red and white striped rank flags. The basic flag under this system consisted of seven red and six white horizontal stripes. An admiral flew this flag at the main, a vice admiral at the fore, and a rear admiral at the mizzen. But this system did not suffice to differentiate the barge of one flag officer from that of another, nor to indicate the relative seniority of two rear admirals in company (there were only one officer each in the grades of admiral and vice admiral, so questions of relative seniority did not arise in those

Admiral's Flag

cases). Nor did it take into account the increasing trend, as technology advanced, for warships to be equipped with two rather than three masts. The vice admiral's boat flag, displayed in the bow of his barge, was therefore distinguished from the admiral's by adding a red star on white, superimposed on the second red stripe in the upper hoist. A rear admiral placed two red stars on white on the second and third red stripes in the upper hoist as his boat flag. He used the same two-star flag at the mizzen when in company with a more senior rear admiral flying the plain striped flag, or at the fore whenever he was embarked in a two-masted ship. A commodore flew a broad pennant with the same stripes. This pennant was forked for the last 40% of its length, but the striped pattern precluded sloping the upper edge as had been the case with the previous pennant design, so the center of the fork was placed in the third white stripe rather than at the center, so that the upper tail of the fly would be shorter than the lower as had been the practice since at least the 1850s. The senior commodore present flew this pennant at the main; juniors in company flew it at the fore. A smaller version was shown at the mizzen by the senior officer present if there was no flag officer on hand.

Commodore's Broad Pennant

From a modern U.S. perspective, it seems backward to have more stars on a lower ranking flag and fewer on a higher ranking one, and the rationale for the change seems puzzling in retrospect. The explanation may be found in the fact that the striped flags actually followed an established pattern, that used by Britain's Royal Navy. In 1864, the British had abandoned their traditional practice of matching flag officers' flags to the color of their nominal squadron. All admirals, vice admirals, and rear admirals now flew a white flag with a red St. George's cross, hoisting it at the main, fore, or mizzen respectively. To distinguish rank in boats, a full admiral flew a plain St. George's cross, a vice admiral the same flag with the addition of a red disk in the upper hoist, and a rear admiral the same flag again, but with two red disks.

The red and white striped field can be seen as the U.S. ensign with its Union canton removed, just as the St. George's flag can be seen as the British white ensign with its Union canton removed. The red stars on the American flags were the precise equivalent of the red disks on the British. British commodores flew a swallowtailed version of the St. George's cross, just as their American counterparts flew swallowtailed versions of the stripes--those of the first class at the main and those of the second class at the fore just as the senior American commodore present flew his pennant at the main and juniors at the fore. Even the practice of using the broad pennant at the mizzen to denote a senior officer present below flag rank was the same in the two navies.

Rear Admiral's Flag

Those who recognized the extent of deference this system paid to the service against which the United States Navy had first built its reputation must have found considerable historical irony in it, and, whether they objected specifically to the Anglophilia implicit in the striped rank flags, naval officers did not like them. Indeed, the flags were the subject of ridicule within the Navy. An account exists of a "line-crossing" ceremony aboard the Asiatic Squadron's flagship USS Colorado shortly after the introduction of the striped flags, in which King Neptune demands to know why a purported American frigate would be flying the Bremen ensign--also a red and white striped flag. As a result, the 1865-66 system was restored by General Order 198 of January 6, 1876, effective July 4, 1876, the centennial of the Declaration of Independence. The blue versions have remained in use to this day.

(BACK)