Civil ensign

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The civil ensign (also known as merchant flag or merchant ensign) is the national flag flown by civil ships (merchant ships and others) to denote nationality.

Beside the naval ensign the civil ensign is one of the two original types of the national flag. In most countries there was originally no distinction between the flag for armed state ships (navy) and civilian-owned, unarmed ships (merchant marine). Today many countries follow the practice of e.g. the USA and France in having only one flag for all or most purposes of the national flag.

In several countries, however, this distinction has developed and was later adopted by other countries as well. Most notable for the elaborate flag system is the United Kingdom, that has (inter alia) the Red Ensign for civilian ships and the White Ensign for the Royal Navy.

Contents 1 Countries having specific civil ensigns 1.1 Red Ensigns after the British pattern 1.2 Civil ensign very different from the national flag 1.3 Civil ensigns consisting of the national flag with an additional emblem 1.4 Simplified national flags 1.5 Civil ensigns differing from the national flag in the proportions 1.6 Remarks

[edit] Countries having specific civil ensigns

The civil ensigns that are different from the "general" national flag, can be grouped in five main categories.

[edit] Red Ensigns after the British pattern

These are red flags with, in most cases, the respective national flag or Royal Union flag in the canton, patterned after the British Red Ensign. British overseas territories either fly the plain Red Ensign or a Red Ensign with the respective colonial arms in the fly.

United Kingdom[1]		Guernsey	Isle of Man
British Virgin Is.	Falkland Is.	Gibraltar	Cayman Is.	Turks and Caicos Is.
Australia[2]	Bahamas	Bangladesh	Fiji	Ghana	India
Malaysia	Mauritius	New Zealand	Pakistan	Solomon Is.	United Arab Emirates[3]

[edit] Civil ensign very different from the national flag

Several countries have civil ensign that are very different from the national flag, for instance Malta and Luxembourg.

Albania

Israel

Luxembourg

Malta

Singapore

[edit] Civil ensigns consisting of the national flag with an additional emblem

Well-known examples are the Italian civil ensign showing the shield with the arms of the sea republics or the Polish civil ensign with the arms of Poland. Most of these emblems were added to distinguish the ensign from similar flags of other countries.

Colombia

El Salvador

Italy

Morocco[4]

Poland

Saudi Arabia

R.O.C.[5]

[edit] Simplified national flags

In several (mostly Latin American) countries there are two main versions of the flag, a simpler one (usually a striped flag) and a more elaborated one with the national arms. The simpler one is used as civil ensign (and in most cases also as civil flag), whereas the version with the arms is mainly used by the government and the military. Interestingly this is similar to the practice in Germany, Austria and Spain.

Austria	Bolivia	Costa Rica	Dominican Rep.	Ecuador
Germany	Guatemala	Haiti	Peru	Spain[6]	Venezuela

[edit] Civil ensigns differing from the national flag in the proportions

Several former British colonies use 1:2 as a proportion for their ensigns, whereas 3:5 is used for flags ashore. The countries of former Yugoslavia have it the other way round: the ensigns are 2:3, flags ashore are 1:2.

Croatia

Grenada

Guyana

Slovenia

Switzerland[7]

Trinidad and Tobago

[edit] Remarks

1. ^ the plain red ensign is also used in Jersey, Anguilla, British Indian Ocean Territory, Montserrat, Pitcairn Islands, Saint Helena
2. ^ the Australian national flag is also used for smaller ships
3. ^ The UAE national flag is also reported as civil ensign
4. ^ the Moroccan national flag is also reported as civil ensign
5. ^ the national flag of the R.O.C. is also reported as civil ensign
6. ^ the Spanish national flag with arms is also used as civil ensign
7. ^ the Swiss flag in square format is used on most rivers and lakes