House flags of British shipping companies (14)

Last modified: 2004-06-12 by rob raeside
Keywords: house flag | donaldson line | d | devitt and moore | dominion shipping | lozenge |
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• Dart Container Ships
• Devitt and Moore
• Dominion Shipping Co. Ltd
• Donaldson (Atlantic) Line
• Dundee, Perth & London Shipping Co., Ltd.

• House flags of British shipping companies
• House flags of shipping companies
• United Kingdom

The flag is swallow-tailed, blue with three darts horizontally divided white-red and placed 2 + 1.

Devitt and Moore ran a fleet of about 20 sailing ships in the wool trade to Australia in the 1800s and early 1900s. In the 1920s they got rid of the ships and founded The Nautical College Pangbourne which, along with the Conway and Worcester, provided cadet training for the MN, RNR and direct entry to the RN College, Dartmouth. The design was wine red and deep blue alternate quarters with a white rectangle (woolsack?) centred in the flag.

Peter Armitage, 24 June 2000

This flag is illustrated in Carr (1961), Flags of the World, and in Barraclough (1971), Flags of the World.
Jarig Bakker, 24 June 2000

The flag is red with a black diamond.

Donaldson Atlantic line, Ltd. had a red-white-blue vertical tricolor with a blue D on the white stripe but above flew a white pennant with the thistle (the related Donaldson Line, Ltd. flew the same flag, but not the pennant).
Source: Stewart (1953)
Ned Smith, 1 July 2003

According to "All about Ships & Shipping, E.P.Harnack (ed), 1938", There were three companies:

1. Donaldson Atlantic Line (Glasgow-New York): Houseflag: White Pennant, with Red and Green Thistle, over Red, White and Blue vertical tricolor, Blue D in center. (ship: Letitia, Athenia (torpedoed 3 Sep 1939)
2. Donaldson Brother, Ltd. (Glasgow, Liverpool-Canada, British Columbia): Houseflag: Red, White and Blue vertical Tricolor, with Blue D in center. Ship: M.S. Salacia
3. Donaldson South American Line, Ltd. (Glasgow, Liverpool-South America): Houseflag: Blue Pennant, with DSAL in White, over Red, White and Blue vertical Tricolor with Blue D in center. Ships: Coracero, Corinaldo, Corrientes, Cortona, Cordillera.

by Jarig Bakker

A similar flag, but with a gold D, was seen on a pin and one without the letter D also on a large sailing vessel in West Bay of Victoria Harbour (B.C., Canada).
Charla "Vikingwoman", 6 October 2003

The companies as detailed were managed by the owners who originated as Donaldson Brothers around 1855, by 1938 becoming Donaldson Bros. & Black Ltd. Griffin 1895 shows a tapered swallowtail with a black letter but nobody else supports this version. There does seem to be a connection with the version with the yellow D from the pin as T.S.S. Captain Cook was managed by them for the N.Z. Government between 1951 and 1960 but I cannot find any comment on such a flag. Whether it has any connection with the sighting on the sailing vessel depends on what it was and when, as Donaldsons folded in the 1970s.
Neale Rosanoski, 9 January 2004

from Stewart and Styring's Flags, Funnels and Hull Colors 1963