Last modified: 2004-08-14 by rob raeside
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Did second-class commodores' broad pennants not have swallow-tails? In which case, were they triangular by any chance?
Joseph McMillan, 9 March 2000
As I understand it, after looking through W.G.Perrin's "British Flags", there was no difference in shape or size between the broad pennants of contemporary 1st and 2nd class commodores.
"Broad Pennants" started as "broad" ordinary pennants and therefore had the shape of a very slender triangle with a slit at the end of the fly. I should think that they were similar to the pennants on the "Royal George" on the front cover of "Flags at Sea", but about 2/3rds as broad again. Perrin quotes Pepys' "Miscellanea" in which the original broad pennant of 1674 is described as being 4 feet 7 inches broad at the head and 21 yards in length (roughly 1.4 x 19 metres). This compared with ordinary pennants that were 2 feet 9 inches at the head and between 22 and 32 yards in length, depending on the size of the ship (0.8 x 20 to 30 metres). Over the years between 1674 and 1864 broad pennants changed from proportions of 1:14 to 1:2.
Don't forget that in the Royal Navy a burgee is not a small triangular
flag, but a "rectangular flag with a swallowtail". Definition in the
"Flags at Sea" glossary and part 5 of Phil Nelson's 1913 Signal Flags.
David Prothero, 12 March 2000
In the Royal Navy the 'commissioning pendant' is exactly that, it indicates no more nor less than the ship flying it is a warship 'in commission' and not one which is 'in reserve'. Having said that it also has the extra b