British Flags: Their Early History, and Their Development at Sea: With an Account of the Origin of the Flag as a National DevicePerrin, William Gordon
History
British Flags: Their Early History, and Their Development at Sea: With an Account of the Origin of the Flag as a National Device
Perrin, William Gordon
Flags -- Great Britain
Here the Vice-Admiral has but one flag, and although we are not
explicitly told where the Admiral and Vice-Admiral are to fly their
flags, it is evident that it is intended they should be at the main and
fore respectively.
We have no further definite information as to the mode in which the
junior admirals bore their flags until we reach the year 1596. For
the important expedition to Cadiz in the summer of that year a large
combined English and Dutch fleet was assembled, and was divided into
five squadrons; four English and one Dutch. The English ships were
under the command of the Earl of Essex and the Lord Admiral (Howard) as
"Joint Generalls of the Armies by sea and land." Under them were Lord
Thomas Howard as Vice-Admiral of the fleet and Sir Walter Raleigh as
Rear-Admiral. Each of these officers had command of one of the English
squadrons with a Vice- and a Rear-Admiral of that squadron under him.
A contemporary account of the expedition among the Duke of
Northumberland's MSS.[261] contains a series of coloured diagrams
showing the flags flown by the various Admirals. From these we see that
Howard, as Lord High Admiral, flew the royal standard at the main and
the St George at the fore. The Vice- and Rear-Admirals of his squadron
flew, at the fore and mizen respectively, a flag with striped field
(red, white and blue in seven horizontal stripes) and the St George in
the canton. Essex, although superior to Howard in social rank and named
before him in the joint proclamation which they issued, flew only the
St George at the main. The Vice- and Rear-Admirals of his squadron flew
at the fore the St George barred with blue horizontally.
The Vice-Admiral of the fleet flew the St George at the fore, and at
the main, as Admiral of his squadron, a flag with the St George in a
canton and a field striped horizontally green and white. The Vice- and
Rear-Admirals of this squadron flew a similar flag at their proper
mastheads. The Rear-Admiral of the fleet flew the St George at the
mizen, and he and the Vice- and Rear-Admirals of his squadron flew
plain white flags at the main, fore, and mizen respectively. The
squadronal flags of the first three squadrons as depicted in this
manuscript are unique as admirals' flags; they appear to have been
stern ensigns promoted for this special occasion.
Originally it had been intended to use plain flags of different colours
for the four squadrons, as is shown by the following entry in the Navy
Accounts to which Mr Oppenheim drew attention in his _Administration of
the Royal Navy_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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