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Lucky Jack
10-14-2014, 13:40
Hello all together,
it`s a little bit awkward question, but I´m only a landsman, and so I ask all the wise guys on this side:
What is the meaning of the groundcolour of the british flags. Each one has the Unionjack in the corner,
but the groundcolour vary between white, red or blue.
I think it is not caused by the commander, but what is the right explanation?

Diamondback
10-14-2014, 13:58
The Royal Navy of the time was divided into three squadrons: Red, White and Blue, each having a corresponding flag. (This is also why you see RN Flag Officers referred to as "Vice-Admiral of the Red", "Admiral of the White", "Rear Admiral of the Blue" and so on.)

Today, only the White Ensign remains in Royal Navy active service, I cannot recall which went were but if memory serves one of the others went to Royal Naval reserve and the other to Merchant Navy.

Naharaht
10-14-2014, 16:57
Diamondback is correct. Here is a link to a Wikipedia article on the subject of British Ensigns.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_ensign

David Manley
10-14-2014, 23:35
As an aside there were also Yellow Admirals, those who were promoted but whom did not have appointments ("without distinction of squadron"). There was of course no yellow ensign.

7eat51
10-15-2014, 04:08
You might find this helpful as well, as it discusses the various ranks, e.g. Admiral of the Fleet, Admiral of the White, etc.: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Admiral_(Royal_Navy)

Lucky Jack
10-15-2014, 12:57
Thanks a lot to all off you.
It seems you all have british seawater in your veins.
:salute:
Mmm, I think I use red for my vessels....:question:

7eat51
10-15-2014, 18:11
It seems you all have british seawater in your veins.

Lake Michigan via a Chicago filtration plant. :wink:

Diamondback
10-15-2014, 18:20
And we were doing SO WELL... just got hammered by a solid 2 minutes of Database Error while trying to access this thread.

Not so much British seawater, just a lot of cramming on RN technical history over the past few years trying to help Ares stay off MOST of the biggest rocks.

Arakus
10-15-2014, 18:20
As far i know after Trafalgar the flag on english warships was only the white one.

John B
02-08-2015, 15:37
Just a little bit of info on admirals the Royal Navy actually had 4 colours White, Blue, Red and believe it or not Yellow. To bypass an officer for any reason he was promoted to Admiral of the Yellow. I believe that someone was promoted Yellow to make way for Nelson (I am sure I read that somewhere).

John B.

Diamondback
02-08-2015, 15:43
The Yellows were basically kicked aside to Shore Duty, a sinecure if memory serves.

David Manley
02-08-2015, 22:11
"Without distinction of squadron" (see post #4) :happy: