Prior to 1707 the canton was merely a red cross of St. George on a white background. At the same time a red cross of St. George was made across the entire length and breadth on the white ensign.
In 1707 with the union with Scotland the background of the canton became blue and the white saltire (diagonal cross)of St. Andrew was added to the ensign.
In 1801 there occurred the Act of Union with Ireland and the red saltire (diagonal cross) of St. Patrick was superimposed over the saltire of St. Andrew. In addition to the changes in pattern of the British naval ensign there has been a definite change of shape since the 17th century.
The early ensigns were almost square being only one-and-a-quarter times their height in the fly. In the late Stuart navy this lengthened to one-and-a-half times the height and in a first rate measured 13.5ft by 18ft. As the years wore on the overall shape of the ensigns became more rectangular and by 1864 the proportions between width and length is 1:2.
The length of a flag is correctly stated in breadths, a unit of 9in. In the 18th century there was an admiral aboard his flag measured 9.5ft by 13ft which is very large by modern standards.
Depending on where the ensign was flying also dictated the size. In
1977 the Nautical Research Society hosted the NRG Conference in
Chicago. The evening's theme was the Royal Navy and HMS Victory.
By some stroke of good fortunate her commanding officer was kind
enough to donate one of Victories foremast ensigns for display. It
was classified a 10 breadth ensign 90in. from top to bottom. Also at
the Conference was a storm ensign, a much, much smaller flag and
made out of very heavy material.
{Dana McCalip}
In the early United States Navy, the "number one ensign" (the official designation of the largest national flag worn in an United States Navy ship and what Ray Morton has coined a "battle ensign" to indicate its use) was quite large to permit naked-eye identification of a ship's nationality even when the ship was at the horizon. Other nations followed the ensign sizing convention that was used by the early United States Navy or they used conventions that resulted in flag devices of very similar sizing.
In the early United States Navy, the traditional size of the number one ensign was based on the ship's size -- the fly of the number one ensign (the horizontal length of the flag) was equal to the full-moulded beam of its own ship. This convention can readily be seen in the vast majority of historic paintings and illustrations, made during the age of sail and of good provenance, for both men-of-war and privateers as well as merchantmen and packets.
The hoist (the vertical dimension of the flag) was in proportion to the fly and that proportion varied from nation to nation -- not all ensigns of the various maritime nations are of the same hoist--to--fly ratio.
When ensigns and jacks were worn that were built proportional to one of the major dimensions of their own ship, the flag would not be lost in profile against any ship nor would the flags overpower the ship either visually or because of wind loading. A uniformity of appearance from one ship to another also resulted as a result of such conventions of flag sizing as well as being able to determine the rate, or size, of a ship from the flag devices she wore.
Before the age of radio and digital communications, flag devices were a very important component of communications at sea throughout history -- and even through World War 2, especially for fleet and convoy maneuvers during periods of radio silence.
In the early United States Navy, ensigns and jacks were carried aboard ship in four sizes -- officially designated from "No. 1" to "No. 4". Their general use, in descending size, was for: "battle", general "service", "storm", and "anchorage" (these are the terms Ray Morton coined for his book manuscript "Early American Maritime Flags & Signals -- 1700-1900", which documents and illustrates about 2,000 different American maritime flags, including about 300 different American ensigns). Each successively smaller ensign had a fly equal to the dimension of the hoist of the next larger flag. Successively smaller flags each followed the rule that their fly length was equal to the hoist of the next larger flag. The sailing ships of Nations other than the United States had similar suites of ensigns that appear to be sized with this fly--hoist method.
The jack worn was equal in size to the canton (the canton is the blue part of an United States ensign) of the largest ensign currently then being worn -- even when two or more sizes of national ensigns were simultaneously being worn, it was the largest ensign's canton size that, by convention, determined the size of the jack to be worn at the same time (usually from the fore truck on a three-masted ship). If there was no separate canton on an ensign, the jack being worn -- as measured in historic images -- was one-half the hoist and fly dimensions of the largest ensign currently worn, which resulted in the jack being one-fourth the square footage of the ensign.
The British Royal Navy used standard-sized ensigns and jacks that were measured by common bunting widths for different rates of ships and were very close in size to the moulded beam sizing method described here. The moulded beam ensign sizing method holds well for United States and French ships and a brief examination of historic images of the flag devices for other nations' ships indicates that the moulded beam convention "generally" holds for Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, and Russian sailing ships as well. More research is needed to confirm that the moulded beam sizing convention holds for those last six nations indicated and, perhaps, for even more nations such as the Kingdom of Two Sicilies, Malta, the Vatican, etc.
The convention derived from the paintings for narrow pennants came to be: 1/9th the moulded beam in the hoist and 2&2/3rds the moulded beam in the fly for a one--to--twenty-four ratio. For the U. S. Frigate CONSTITUTION (44), for example, this would be a 4-ft 10-in hoist and a 116-ft fly. Narrow pennants were suspended at their hoist by a pennant yard and pennant bridle when worn, usually, from the main truck in three-masted sailing ships.
All other flags were of standard sizes but were still very large compared to what is generally seen in most ship models nowadays. Ensigns, jacks, narrow pennants, and broad pennants were "worn" in a ship -- all other flag devices were "flown". One might say that these are really large flags; however, they are actually the "correct size" and all of us in this day and age are used to seeing well executed sailing ship models with, sadly, inappropriate "too-small sized" flags being worn in most of those ship models.
Flag devices were apparently "not" used routinely while at sea because the flags, which were quite expensive, would become damaged. They seem to have been worn or flown while in port, while departing or arriving, on holidays, and upon greeting other ships at sea under certain conditions.
The modeler should also be aware that there were quite a few exceptions and variations for early maritime flag devices and that mass production quality control was not a feature of the flag devices sewn one-at-a-time for sailing ships until starting about the 1870s or 1880s. The bolt width of the flag cloth may also have had a bearing on the eventual actual size of any particular flag.
Every modeler is cautioned to do their own research and to confirm
these findings in authenticated historic images of the ship and period
they are modeling -- or of a similar ship from the same period when
an authenticated historic image from the age of sail for the model's
exact prototype subject can not be readily obtained. The conventions
for flag devices did change with time -- so, be careful in doing your
research. If one is building a one-masted or two-masted ship model
or a several-masted schooner, do your research carefully with
authenticated historic images to determine the placement of whatever
flag devices were commonly flown for the period you are modeling.
Just because a painting or a book illustration is "old" does not
necessarily mean that the image is "correct".
{Quoted from Ray Morton}
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