18th c. British Navy

Short History of the British Navy

The following text is an excerpt from: Wilson, Timothy. Flags at Sea. London: her Majesty's Stationary Office, 1986. pp 24-27.

The pattern of the Union Flag and Jack generally adopted in the late 17th century and until 1801 was the pattern ordained in 1606. There is, however, tantalising evidence of experiments in the 1660s with a version of the flag that foreshadowed the modern pattern by including a red saltire to represent Ireland within the white saltire of Scotland.

In the Restoration navy (1660s) the officers of a fleet held office by appointment only, not by rank: that is, they were appointed not to the permanent rank of, say, vice admiral, but to the temporary appointment of vice admiral of the blue squadron; after the fleet in question had finished its appointed task, the officer ceased to be a vice admiral, and he could not fly a flag in his own right.

Commanders of expeditions were often given permission to fly special flags: for example, officers commanding squadrons in the Mediterranean or West Indies were regularly authorised to fly a Union Flag at the main as long as they were outside home waters. There were also special pennants for officers not authorised to fly a full flag: a red pennant with St George's cross at the hoist but broader than the ordinary warship pennant, was allotted in 1674 to the officer commanding in the Downs (off the east coast of Lent); and a pennant called 'Budgee pennant', a red broad pennant with the Union at the hoist was used in the 1690s by Officers commanding outside home waters. Out of these special pennants developed the plain red and blue broad pennants used by commodores - a title which dates in the Royal Navy from about 1690 - seen in paintings of 18th century actions.

After the Third Dutch War the Royal Navy stopped fighting the Dutch and at the end of the century the main enemy was the French. The plain white admiral's flag and the white ensign were easily confused with the white flags used by the French navy; accordingly, in 1702, the white flag of flag officers of the white squadron was replaced by a flag of St George throughout. In 1707, following the Act of Union, the Union replaced the cross of St George in the canton of the ensigns, though not in the masthead pennants. In 18th century ensigns the union in the canton tended to occupy a quarter of the area of the ensign, or a little less, in contrast to the earlier ensigns with St George's cross, in which the canton was generally a good deal smaller. Between 1707 and 1801 there was no important change in the design of the main command flags and colours of the British Navy. Some of the regulations on the use of flags in the navy were laid down in the Regulations and Instructions Relating to His Majesty's Service at Sea. (1731).

The colours of an 18th century British warship were thus: the ensign, of the squadronal colour, or red if an independent command; the jack, which, following changes in rig around the 1720s, ceased to be worn at sea and since then has generally been hoisted only in harbour, and the pennant, sometimes with its fly on the colour of the ensign, otherwise striped lengthwise red, white and blue. Since the 1720s the pennant has been the permanent distinguishing mark of a warship, kept flying all the time unless struck on the hoisting of a command flag or a broad pennant. It has never been obligatory to wear an ensign all the time at sea.

As the Royal Navy's responsibilities in defending and extending a world-wide empire grew in the 18th century, the 17th century organisation into a single enormous fleet with nine flag officers commanding nine squadrons was abandoned. Instead of being appointed to a temporary job in a particular fleet, officers obtained permanent tenure of rank and, once appointed to a flag, gained promotion by moving up the list as those above them died off. Up to 1743, the total number of active flag officers at any time was limited to nine; after that year the restriction was lifted, so that several admirals, vice admirals and rear admirals of each colour could exist, and the number of flag officers grew rapidly. The ladder of promotion incorporated squadronal colours: a man would normally receive his flag as rear admiral of the blue and advance through rear admiral of the white, rear admiral of the red, vice admiral of the blue, vice admiral of the white, vice admiral of the red, admiral of the blue and admiral of the white, until finally, if he lived long enough, he reached the rank of Admiral of the Fleet.

While a rear admiral he flew his flag at the mizzen; while a vice admiral, at the fore; and when he became a full admiral, at the main. The Admiral of the Fleet flew the Union at the main. The system was extremely inflexible in that it was impossible to overtake those above you on the list; but this did not stop the Admiralty appointing a man from well down the list to command a squadron or a fleet if he was felt to be 'the best man for the job'. However, no flag officer could be placed under the orders of someone blow him on the list. The longer one had one's commission, the higher one was up the list.