Original Query: Naval Standards
There is an actual surviving standard of the Commonwealth at the National Maritime Museum but it is such an extraordinary design that most opinions agree that it was made incorrectly and put aside.
Does anyone have any comments on the above or any information on Standards flown by the Generals-at-Sea during the Commonwealth and Protectorate?
Answer
I believe that Nick Flowers has already come across the information given in Potter and Embleton's THE ENGLISH CIVIL WAR (Almark) and the sketches of Willeim Van de Velde the Elder, but others may be interested. During the Civil War the Navy followed the code of the peacetime force. It flew the Union Flag (without the diagonal red cross of St. Patrick) from the Bowsprit, Cross of St. George flags from the Masts and the Red Ensign from the Stern. When the Lord High Admiral was aboard, the Royal Standard was flown from the main mast instead of a St. George. When an Admiral was aboard a plain blue flag was flown from the main mast, if he was commanding the van, and a blue ensign was flown from the Stern; his squadron flying blue pennants from their main masts also. If he commanded the rear squadron, white flags were used instead. All ensigns consisted of a plain field, red blue or white, with the cross of St. George in the top left hand corner, nearest the stave. In 1649 the office of Lord High Admiral was abolished and the ensign system reversed, i.e. white flags in the Van, blue in the Rear. The Royal Standard was no longer flown and the union Flag on the Bowsprit was replaced under the commonwealth with its own flag. This was divided vertically in the centre, the left half nearest the stave being an English Cross of St. George, the right hand being a gold Irish Harp on a Blue field.
There is some thought that the example in the Maritime Museum was made upside down by mistake!
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