Studio: international art (85.1923)

ESSENTIALS OF SEA ARMORY

FIG. 4

Edward III. The red cross gradually be-
came paramount, and its influence re-
mains in many modern flags, including the
white ensigns, command-flags and pen-
dants universally employed by the Royal
Navy after the abolition of the three-
ensign system in 1864. 000

In order to determine the nationality of
a modern vessel, we instinctively look aft
in order to find a national ensign of stan-
dard pattern. Had we done so in pre-Stuart
days, we might have been disappointed ;
we should, at least, have experienced a
difficulty in picking out the flag of St.
George among the many gay banners of
the noblemen and bannerets present in the
ship. The red cross would possibly have
been found in the great streamer at the
masthead and in the u standards ” of some
of the gentlemen referred to, and in the
Tudor period we might have discovered it
as a rectangular flag, but sometimes mixed
with the Tudor livery colours of green and
white, or with other designs of great diver-
sity, often striped. The stern-ensign did
not always contain a national device, and
there are reasons for thinking that, in the
Elizabethan Age, it was personal to the
ship or her captain—a survival of the rally-
ing-flag or livery colours of a feudal
leader, which afterwards developed into
regimental colours and uniforms.* But
the ensigns now borne by this nation,
though they bear the national device, owe
their origin, curiously enough, less to the
need for national distinction than to de-
velopments in naval tactics : it became

* The Stuart livery colour was red ; those of the
Bourbons blue, white and red.

92

necessary, early in the seventeenth cen-
tury, to divide the fleet into three squad-
rons ; their flag-officers wore flags of red,
white or blue and the ships under them
bore, at the stern, an ensign of their
admiral's colour. The ensign of the red, or
centre, squadron and various other flags
referred to above are shown in the colour-
page. 000000
Difficulties of national distinction had
been felt from a very early date, and were
not eased by a taste, which manifested
itself in the late sixteenth century, for
placing badges or shields of arms on a
plain background. This background was
frequently white, and, in these circum-
stances, one of these flags was very like
another (Fig. 3). The French, who had
adopted the u cornette blanche” gave that
colour to their Navy in the seventeenth
century, and, in fighting the Spaniards,
they found a difficulty, in light airs, in
distinguishing their own flag from the
white flag of the enemy. They therefore
used an ensign of red, in face of Royal
opposition, and even suggested the adop-
tion of a blue ensign based on that of their
merchant marine. The Royal will, how-
ever, prevailed eventually. Similar con-
fusions led to the incorporation, in our
own white ensign, of the large red cross,
early in the eighteenth century, and to the
general use of red ensigns at the Glorious
First of Junef and of white ensigns at
Trafalgar. The recurrence of a similar
difficulty in the late war is in the memory
of all. 000000

t The French still used the ensign of 1790.