France: Postal flag

Last modified: 2005-02-26 by ivan sache
Keywords: postal flag | service postal |
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by Željko Heimer

• French postal flag
• Flying the postal flag
• Artistic rendition of the postal flag
• French postal service contracted to British ships

See also:

• France
• France: House flags of shipping companies

French postal flag

Flaggenbuch [neu92] shows the flag hoisted on vessels used for post service. It is a French Tricolore with the three stripes equally wide (odd for a flag at sea), a short swallow tail (1/3rd of the red stripe) and a small white canton (width: 3/4th of the width of the blue stripe; height: 1/4th of the height of the hoist) bearing in blue

The paquebots-poste (lit., postal liners) sailed between France and its colonies during the golden age of steam navigation and colonization, i.e., from ca. 1860 to the Second World War.
The liners were used both for passenger and freight transportation, including postal service.

The postal flag was still shown in the 1995 recapitulative edition of Album des Pavillons [pie90]. The flag was discarded from the next release of Album [pay00], since the maritime postal service had been suppressed.

Ivan Sache, 5 November 2000

Flying the postal flag

by Miles Li

The French postal flag was normally flown as a jack (A), but before the 19