House Flags of U.S. Shipping Companies: U

Union Barge Line

  by Joe McMillan

Union Barge Line, Pittsburgh
As the name and homeport suggest, this is a barge line operating on the Mississippi-Ohio river system. The flag is (was?) a white pennant with the word "Union" in blue letters of diminishing size.
Source: www.steamship.net (no longer available)

Joe McMillan, 29 November 2001

Union Ferry Company

by Richard Knipel

by Richard Knipel

I am reporting two flags flown from the ferry boat "Brooklyn", operated by the Union Ferry Company in the 1840s, at the time one of five ferry lines crossing between Brooklyn and Manhattan. They are from a painting from some time between 1846-49 by the identical twin painters James and John Bard, noted for their depictions of river craft around New York. I saw the painting in a black-and-white photograph in the book "Brooklyn's City Hall", by William J. Conklin and Jeffrey Simpson, Copyright 1983 by the City of New York. But the image is credited to the Long Island Historical Society, now known as the Brooklyn Historical Society. I imagine the painting is in their archive. As the photo was black-and-white, I was forced to chose dark blue as a reasonably likely color.
Richard Knipel, 2 August 2004

Union (Havre) Line

  by Joe McMillan

Union (Havre) Line, New York (?-1863)<us~union.gif
This flag is very similar to that of the Fox & Livingston Havre Line, which was one of the three New York-to-Le Havre lines that were consolidated into the Union Line in the 1840s. It was eventually put out of business by the American Civil War. This flag is white with a black U and was in use by at least 1845. The  Fox & Livingston Union Line flag was white with a blue U according to Private Signals of the Merchants of New York. I am somewhat skeptical that there were really two different flags, as the F&L line had been consolidated into the Union Line by the time the chart was published.
Source:  chart of "Private Signals of the Merchants of New York"

Joe McMillan, 29 November 20