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Bolivian Naval Ensign

by Željko Heimer, 11 Mar 2001

About the flag
Shoulder patch variant

See also:

About the flag

The famous naval ensign of Bolivia - blue ensign with the national flag in canton surrounded by 9 small stars on two inner sides and one bigger star in lower fly. Album 2000 [pay00] says . The light blue field of the flag is approximated in Album 2000 with Pantone Process Blue.
Željko Heimer, 11 Mar 2001

The ratio of this flag is quoted in [smi80] as 3:4~, Album [pay00] says 3:4 exactly, Shipmate Chart [vdv00] have it as 2:3 and considerably larger canton.
Željko Heimer, 11 Mar 2001

The ensign is actually used on Lake Titicaca.
Armand du Payrat, 03 Feb 2002

Not just Lake Titicaca but something like 10 000 miles of river as well, according to Jane’s Fighting Ships [jfs] (online edition). The Bolivian Navy has 6659 men and 73 vessels ranging from 3-man river patrol boats to seven logistic support boats and 11 river transports.
Joe McMillan, 03 Feb 2002

All the photos I have seen of the patrol boats on Lake Titicana feature the state flag. Maybe the “naval ensign” is more a ceremonial flag?
Miles Li, 04 Feb 2002

Jane’s [jfs] has three color pictures of the Bolivian Navy in which flags are visible and in each case the only flag flown is the regular Bolivian tricolor, not the naval ensign. There are, as I recall, eight different boats shown among these three photographs.
Joe McMillan, 03 Feb 2002

Every TV documentary I have seen related with Lake Titicaca shows a patrol-boat with the naval ensign. I won’t be surprised if it were a kind of non-official prerequisite to make images there.
Ivan Sache, 03 Feb 2002

The red-yellow-green civil flag of Bolivia is authorized for use as a civil ensign by Bolivian registered shipping, despite the fact that Bolivia has no coastline. Fair enough. But Bolivia also has a naval ensign — which normally would imply a coastline and a navy to defend it.

The flag is light blue with a Bolivian flag in the canton. There are nine yellow stars below and to the right of the canton and a larger tenth star in the fly.

This is a good example of a flag being used to maintain a geopolitical claim. Bolivia had access to the Pacific until 1884 and getting it back has been one of the dominant trends of Bolivian domestic and international politics ever since. To cut a long and complicated story short, in 1879 Ch