Bahamas - Ensigns

Last modified: 2005-08-06 by dov gutterman
Keywords: bahamas | civil ensign | naval ensign | the bahamas |
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• Overview
• The Civil Ensign
• The Naval Ensign and Aircraft Marking
• The Naval Reserve Ensign
• Civil Jack

See also:

• The Bahamas
• Bahamas - Houseflags of Shipping Companies
• The Bahamas - Yacht Clubs

Overview

According to Smith (1975) [smi75], the Bahamas has three "cross" flags, each with the national flag in the canton:

• Red field, white cross - civil ensign ("merchant flag")
• White Field, red cross - naval ensign and war flag
• White Field, blue cross - state ensign (like the UK's "blue ensigns")

Nick Artimovich, 29 April 1996

Concering all three ensigns in Album 2000 [pay00] - Difference regarding the images below is in width of the cross. However, I believe that Album might here more exact, but it seems that other sources I have consulted in brief does not give definitive anwser. In some [smi80, smi75, zna99)]the width of cross is aparently equal to the width of the three stripes of the flag in canton (so it 1/7 of hight), while Smipmate Chart and Album 2000 (and 1990 corr. 26) have the cross thinner (say 1/8 of height). WFD, have surprisingly something else - the cross horizontal bar seem even wider the 1/7 (but it is not easy to judge that), but also the vertical bar is notably much wider.
Another question that is connected to the one above is the shape of the trangle in canton flag - is it streched as the national flag is (to fill up the canton), or are only the stripes streched and the trangles is still equilateral? I suspect that the last might be true, but...
In case I am right in this last one, the images in Album are wrong
Željko Heimer, 7 Febuary 2001

I agree. It is a mistake.
Armand du Payrat, 16 Febuary 2001

The Civil Ensign

(1:2)
by Jan Oskar Engene

I saw a flag on a ship that I am not able to identify using your Flag Detective site. The flag was like the flag of Denmark but the upper left quadrant of the red cross design was blue with a yellow pennant coming into the blue quadrant from the left edge of the flag. The name of the ship was the Tecam Sea. Any ideas?
Bob Wilson, 6 August 1999

Sounds like the civil ensign of the Bahamas - many ships out there are of Bahamian registry because of tax laws, so you would see its flag on the seas quite a bit. It looks like the Danish flag (a red flag with a narrow white St. George's cross, and 1:2 proportions), with the Bahamas flag in the canton (upper-left corner).
David Kendall, 6 August 1999

Merchant Vessel registered in Bahamas hoist the Bahamas civil ensign. A foreign Flag merchant vessel