U.S. 13 Star, 13 stripe Navy Boat Flag No. 7. - 1891
This is a large, 13 star U.S. Navy Boat Flag that is not from the American Revolution era. It was made in the late 19th century for usage on the small boats that were carried aboard larger warships. These smaller boats were used to ferry personnel and goods from ship to shore, and ship to ship. During the last 3 decades of the 19th century the boat flags made for or by the U.S. Navy had only 13 stars. These stars were arranged in 5 staggered horizontal rows of 3-2-3-2-3, which has been believed to be a design from the American Revolution.

The 1882 Navy regulations provided for three sizes of boat flags. The No. 6 was 80" on the fly, the No. 7 was 66", and the No. 7 was 54". The heading of this flag is stenciled as U.S. Ensign No. 7. The heading also indicates that the flag was made Navy Yard N.Y. in Brooklyn in April of 1891. This data was incorporated by the U.S. Navy to aid future flag historians.

During these decades the U.S. Navy took hesitant steps in the development of steel-hulled ships, which would be the basis of The Great White Fleet.

Due to the expansion of American power that led to new designs of U.S. Navy vessels, the demand for boat flags increased dramatically in a short period of time. The U.S. Navy then introduced a fleet of experimental underwater boats. The new technology of these underwater boats introduced a new form of waging war using the name "Submarines". This increased the use of the 3-2-3-2-3, 13 star boat flag. It was adopted as the official ensign of the new underwater Navy and therefore increased demand and usage of this 13 star flag. This is reflected by many of these "boat flags" that have survived today.

Exhibition History:
The American Flag: Two Centuries of Concord and Conflict
Offices Club, Presidio of San Francisco
San Francisco, CA

First & Second Presidio Exhibits, 2003

Publication History:
Druckman, Nancy, Jeffrey Kenneth Kohn, American Flags: Designs for a Young Nation, New York, Harry N Abrams Inc., 2003, p.27

Provenance:
• Made at Navy Yard N.Y. in Brooklyn, NY, April 1891.
• Acquired by Mr. & Mrs. Boleslaw & Marie-Louise D'Otrange Mastai, New York City, and Amagansett, NY, The Mastai Collection, until 2002.
• Sold via Sotheby's Auction in New York City to the Zaricor Flag Collection, 2002.

Sources:


Mastai, Boleslaw and Marie-Louise D'Otrange, The Stars and The Stripes: The American Flag as Art and as History from the Birth of the republic to the Present, Knopf, New York, 1973.

Madaus, Howard M., Dr, Whitney Smith, The American Flag: Two Centuries of Concord and Conflict. Santa Cruz: VZ Publications, 2006.

Flag Sizes, Naval History & Heritage Command, 19 June 2013, from: http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq129-1.htm

History of the BNY, Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation, 19 June 2013, from: http://www.brooklynnavyyard.org/history.html

US Navy "Boat" Flag, 19 June 2013, from:
http://www.vexman.net/smalboat.htm ,

Zaricor Flag Collection (ZFC) Archives, 2013.

Image Credits:
Zaricor Flag Collection