THE HOUSE FLAG

Taranaki Daily News, 1 June 1934, Page 14

THE HOUSE FLAG

Pro ( ud. And Romantic Emblems Of Famous Lines

LV SHIPPING line’s house flag is now a matter of much less importance or interest than it used to be to the line’s passengers or shippers or to the general public, but in the amalgamation of the Cunard and White Star lines we have a reminder of the times when it was the fashion to name the line after the flag or •its design and when a definite value came to be attached .to .both (writes Boyd Cable in the “Manchester Guardian”). The White Star Line and its flag go back to the days of the clipper ships, the homeward races with the first of the season’s teas from China, the speed rivalry in carrying impatient passengers to the El Dorado of the Australian goldfield diggings. And this naming of the line after its fivepointed white stair on a red swallowtailflag was carrying on, as the clippers did, the same practice which had been followed by the Atlantic packets, and before, them by the fleets of frigate-built East Indiamen that succeeded those of the East Indian Company.. To those familiar with sailing history there are still old names and flags that conjure up pictures of certain ships, the seas they sailed, and the record passages they made. The packet ships carried their passengers and mail driving hard under every stitch of canvas the sticks could stand, sailing, blow high, blow low, on the advertised time and tide, bound by contract, and by still more binding custom, to. leave port if they could set no. more than a single close-reefed topsail. Some of the packet lines carried the badge of their name both on the flag and across the depth and width of their fore-topsail, which was always the last to keep set in a hard blow as well as the least obscured by other sails. The famous Black Ball Line had a solid black circle or ball on a crimson swallowtail flag, and the ball painted on the fore topsail, and the St. George’s Cross Line had its. flag of red 'cross on white and the cross again on the sail. Train’s White Diamond Line, with white diamond on a red field; Griswold’s black cross on a red swallowtail; the Swallowtail, with flag of that shape coloured red before white for the London run, blue before white for the Liverpool, were others of the flags that flew over the staunch packet ships and men that fought their way out against the gales of the North Atlantic fvinters, thrashed down Channel, 'tack and tack, in the teeth of the tearing southwesterlies, or came crashing in for Mersey mouth under a press of sail and the urge of the favouring gales. In another generation steam was cutting into the sailing packets’ trade across the Atlantic, but speed still had to be sought under sail on the long voyages of the Far East or the distant colonies of Australia and New Zealand, and the beautiful clipper ships and famous clipper lines came along to meet the need.

Another no less famous Black Ball Line between Liverpool and Australia “commandeered” the name and flag of the old Atlantic Black Ballers, and in their Marco Polo, Lightning, James Baines, and others made a name that is known to-day, long after the ships and flag have disappeared. The same White Star flag and name borne by the line that is now joining up with the Cunard was carried by the White Star clippers White Star and Red Jacket on the Australian run, and another White Star Line, distinguished from the other as George Thompson’s, or the Aberdeen White Star, was building a fame that reached its zenith in sail With the great Thermopylae and her never-equalled record run of 60 days England to Australia from the Start to the Melbourne pilot. That star also carried on into steam, and its flag now flies over the Aberdeen and Commonwealth liners. The Blue Cross, Black Star, Lund’s Blue Anchor, and the Flying Horse clippers were more of the China and colonial clippers that embodied their name in their flag devices and raced for months across the world without one moment’s' slackening, whether they were flying under tiering pyramids of sail across the friendly trade

winds or scudding wildly before the giant greybeard seas and shrieking winds under the closest reefed storm canvas “running the Easting down” along the latitudes of the Roaring Forties.

Then the Suez Canal opened, shortening the distances steamers had to carry their coal, and the clipper men either hauled down the brave house flags for good or rehoisted them in the new “steam kettles” when they —as they used to phrase it—“left the sea and went into steam.”

The strongest feelings of pride and sentiment used to attach to the old house flags, not only among those serving the lines but also among their passengers and shippers. This was clearly expressed no farther back than 1900, when the Union Line and Castle Line to the Cape amalgamated and the .bitterest feelings were expressed by supporters of each line, who feared their favourite would be “absorbed” and submerged. To fly the flag of one line over the ships of its former rival would have been adding insult to injury, but this difficulty was neatly. avoided. x The Union Line flag had a white field with blue edge and a red saltire across, the white, and the Castle’s had a red C on a white diamond in the centre ,of a white saltire running across the blue field. The two were merged by widening the Castle’s white saltire and dropping the C, and by running the Union’s red saltire through the white saltire and diamond. The Cunard and White Star may not find it so easy to merge the yellow lion rampant and the large white star, but they will certainly offend all nautical sentiment (and perhaps some of their supporters’ feelings) if they drop either of the flags completely.