Williamsburg Yacht Club Pennant - variant, Commodore Stephern Decatur family.
This pennant or burgee's exact use is unknown as it cannot be identified to a known US yacht club. It is a reverse color configuration of the venerable Williamsburg Yacht Club of Brooklyn, NY, leading to speculation that it is somehow associated with that yacht club, perhaps as an auxiliary or sister organization. Its acquisition with a 19th century Williamsburg Yacht Club Burgee has led to the speculation that these are not naval, but rather 19th century civilian maritime pennants, likely used by pleasure boaters from the Decatur family since Commodore Decatur was closely connected for many years to the nearby Brooklyn Navy Yard.
The pennant was acquired at auction and in the sales copy, along with a similar pennant (ZFC3539), was misidentified as a US Navy captain or commander's flags. However, they do not comply with any known signal flag system or command designating flag ever used by the United States Navy.
This flag was formerly part of the Decatur-Armsden Collection, a family collection that included artifacts and flags from the Lear-Storer-Decatur family which encompassed a number of important historical figures from the 19th, 18th and 17th Centuries.
This cache of historical goods descended from various generations and branches of the Lear-Storer-Decatur families and included items from Sir William Pepperrell Baronet and John Storer ( who were both part of the 1745 expedition to Nova Scotia to capture Ft. Louisburg), Colonel Tobias Lear (General Washington's Aide de Camp and personal friend), Benjamin Lincoln Lear (son of Tobias Lear), Commodore Stephen Decatur, Commodore Stephen A. Decatur (nephew of his famous namesake), Commodore George Washington Storer, Ichabod Goodwin (Governor of New Hampshire), Captain George Washington Storer (nephew of Tobias Lear), and Admiral of the Navy George Dewey.
The accumulation of historic artifacts was a treasure trove which was rediscovered in the mid 20th Century when the family as a whole decided to sell a barn at Kittery Point, Maine, the spiritual center of the extended family. The barn had served as a repository for a vast amount of historical material that has been passed down through the generations. When inventoried the barn was found to contain a significant archive of papers, memorabilia, photographs, books, artifacts and some twenty historic flags. The historic trove was divided up amongst the three branches of the family.
That portion which had gone to Alice Decatur Armsden contained the flags and was maintained in its entirety until her and her husband's estate was settled in 2009. In the estate were flags from some of America's most illustrious naval families-- Decatur, Storer and Dewey. The flag grouping consisted of Boat Flags, Ensigns, Signal Flags, Burgees, Rank Flags, Distinguishing Flags, Service Flags and a Yacht Ensign. Among the US flags and ensigns were the following star counts: 13 stars (4), 16 stars, 26 stars, 34 stars (3), 35 stars, 45 stars (2) and 48 stars.
Dating from the early 18th century, the flags seem to have been acquired from the male naval officers of the family by the women of the families, who then carefully preserved and conserved them, an act for which posterity is forever indebted.
ZFC Significant Flag
Sources:
Williamsburgh Yacht Club, Oldest American Yacht Clubs, 14 November 2011, from;
14 November 2011, from; http://www.burgees.com/OldUSClubs.htm
Williamsburgh Yacht Club, 14 November 2011, from;
http://www.williamsburghyachtclub.org
2-Day Winter Antiques & Fine Art Auction, Artfact, 14 November 2011, from: http://www.artfact.com/auction-catalog/2-day-winter-antiques-fine-art-auction,-day-2-kbmiwmy646
Smith, David, A Million-Dollar Map At Julia's Americana, Antiques and the Arts Online, 14 November 2011, from:
http://antiquesandthearts.com/Antiques/AuctionWatch/2010-03-02__14-22-30.html
Parsons, William Decatur, The Decatur Genealogy, New York 1921, with additions by &Stephen Decatur, Marblehead, MA, 2003.
Image Credits:
Zaricor Flag Collection
