20 Star U.S. Navy Boat Flag & Ensign, 1818, former Flayderman Collection
With the close of the Revolutionary War, the Continental Congress dismantled the naval forces that it and the states had raised. However, in 1798 a war with France seemed imminent and consequently the new Congress reauthorized the United States Navy. During the War of 1812 with Great Britain, the Navy performed gallantly and Congress did not disband it after the conflict ended.
In the early 19th century the Navy Department assigned squadrons of warships to patrol areas of the Atlantic Ocean to protect American commercial interests. The ships of these squadrons usually returned to a specific homeport where navy yards had been established for the construction and refitting of vessels.
The smallest flags made at these navy yards were for the small oar-powered boats carried on larger vessels. This "6-foot ensign" was six feet long. As one of the smallest of the flags made by the Navy, it qualified as a boat flag. The stars are arranged in four aligned horizontal rows of five stars each, as specified in the Navy circular issued on September 10, 1818, during the presidency of James Monroe.
Madaus, Howard M., Dr, Whitney Smith, The American Flag: Two Centuries of Concord and Conflict. Santa Cruz: VZ Publications, 2006, p. 36
This particular design of the national flag was flown for only one year following the admission of Mississippi (1817) and Illinois (1818) into the Union.
The field of this flag is composed of thirteen alternating white and red stripes, made of a loose weave wool bunting, and joined together by hand stitches. Inset into the upper hoist corner and extending through the upper seven stripes is a dark blue wool/bunting canton formed from two pieces of bunting joined horizontally by hand. This canton bears 4 rows of white cotton five-pointed stars, each horizontal row having five stars. The stars are sewn to the obverse side of the canton, each star measuring 3" across, to ensure visibility from both sides. The dark blue bunting behind each star is cut away to expose the white from the opposite side, where they measure only 2.5" across. A white linen heading, 1 1/2" wide has been sewn over the hoist edge, and a button hole eyelet has been worked into each end of the flag to act as ties. The upper section of the heading is inked with an Inscription which appears to read, "6 ft Ensign", a typical naval method of titling flags.
Refer to Fonda Thompsen #1113. Possibly US Navy Flag. Circa 1818. Framed (outside dimensions 48 x 80).
Exhibition History:
First Presidio Exhibit
(ZFC0421)
Twenty-Star United States Navy Boat Ensign
Second Presidio Exhibit, 2003 Gallery II
(ZFC0421)
20-Star United States Navy Boat Flag
Winterthur Exhibit
Betsy Ross
The Life Behind the Legend
October 2, 2010 January 2, 2011
Publication History:
Madaus, Howard M., Dr, Whitney Smith, The American Flag: Two Centuries of Concord and Conflict. Santa Cruz: VZ Publications, 2006, p. 36.
Provenance:
• Flayderman Collection, Fort Lauderdale, FL, until 1997.
• Sold via Butterfields & Butterfields, San Francisco, CA, to the Zaricor Flag Collection 1997.
ZFC Significant Flag
Item is Framed
Sources: