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Yacht Ensign (U.S.)

by Rick Wyatt, 4 March 1997

Description
Legal Authority

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Description

It has thirteen red/white stripes with a blue canton. In the canton is a circle of 13 white stars around a white fouled anchor. This flag was established by Congress in 1848 as a signal to be used by all licensed yachts. It is a variant of the U.S. Navy "small boat flag" which used 13 stars because of the relatively small size of the flag. The Navy used this 13 star flag until 1916, but the Yacht Ensign with the anchor continues in use today.
Nick Artimovich, 23 January 1997

The U.S. Yacht Ensign was designed in the 1840s IIRC to be used by yachts of American Registry so that they would not have to clear customs when pleasure sailing from port to port. At that time, a special registration was necessary to fly the flag (legally). Today, there is no such special registration and consequently no rules about flying it.
Dave Martucci, 27 April 1998

The term "yacht ensign" is not entirely correct. About a hundred fifty years ago Congress authorized the Secretary of the Treasury to promulgate a signal to be displayed by registered yachts entering or leaving port to show that they were not required to clear at the customs house. The design he published, so well illustrated for us, noticeably resembles the United States national flag, and people began to use it as a yacht ensign, although the law does not authorize this. The United States government resisted this trend, but eventually yielded to the extent of announcing that it would regard a vessel flying the yacht signal in the place of the ensign as be