Quote:
Originally Posted by gap
Thank you for CaptBones,
your detailed explainations seem to grossly confirm what I had found so far on the topic, but I have a few questions:
- does the same rule applly to merchant as well as military vessels?
- is the information I had previously collected (i.e. hoisting the ensign to the extremity of a gaff rigged on the mainmast) a valid alternative to hoisting it to the maintruck while underway, or that was wrong?
- when required, where are broad pennants and house flags hoisted relative to the ensign?
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Well...here's what I have observed relative to merchant vessels...
Not all have or follow any set "rules" for displaying flags at sea or in port. Most do fly the appropriate flag (either their national flag [e.g. American flag for US-registered commerical vessels] or a merchant ensign [e.g. "Red Ensign" for UK-registered commercial vessels]). When in port they display their flag at the fantail and the flag of the country whose port they are in at the main truck or a signal flag yardarm (I can't recall ever seeing one with a jack or even a jackstaff). They also typically fly a house flag at a yardarm when in port and sometimes at sea as well. The display of their ensign/national flag at sea also varies widely, some fly it from the fantail flagstaff and some from the main truck; the former seems to be more typical.
I suspect the choice is largely driven by the distance someone has to run to render honors to warships they encounter at sea. It is common courtesy for merchant ships to render honors to warships, especially if the merchant vessel is in the territorial waters of the warship it meets! Rendering honors means dipping your flag, which the warship acknowledges by dipping her flag in return. It's quite "formal"...the merhcant ship dips its flag, the warship then dips its flag and returns it to full staff, then the merchant vessel may return its flag to full staff.
As for using a gaff rigged to the mainmast...pretty much the same thing as flying it from the main truck. Sometimes a gaff is used, sometimes the top of the truck has more than one pulley and that is used (see below), sometimes for small ships that fly small size ensigns, a "pig stick" is used with the ensign attached to the stick and the stick hoisted to the gaff or the truck. The design of the mast is different from ship class to ship class and frequently from ship to ship as well, especially as they get older and have alterations applied.
Now for broad pennants and "house flags"...for USN, the most used pennant is the "coach whip" commissioning pennant. It is always flown at the highest point on the mainmast, above the ensign even. Of course, it's rather small and hardly noticeable, uness you're looking for it and know where to look (it is almost always attached to a "pig stick" and the stick hoisted to the top of the main truck). Broad pennants displayed are the identification pennants for embarked Squadron Commanders/Group Commanders. They are only flown when the Commander is "embarked", which doesn't mean physically present/onboard; their pennant will be flown from an inboard halyard on the main yardarm (therefore below the ensign when underway). When the Commander is embarked, but not onboard in port, an absentee pennant is flown from an outboard hoist on the main yardarm (Commanding Officers also get an absentee pennant when they are not onboard)...by default they will be physically above the ensign when in port, but since they are not displayed from the same mast as the ensign, they aren't really "above" the ensign.
House flags are not "official" displays in the USN, but rather flags that the crew would design and display on certain occasions. Generally they are only used when entering port...especially homeport...on return from a deployment or a "special operation"...including successful completion of most types of underway tests/trials/readiness inspections. etc.
Well, that's a small treatise...hope it clears up some of your questions.