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Civil Ensign (Singapore)

1:2

Description
Flag Legislation

See also:

Singapore

Other sites:

Civil Ensign Specifications and Construction Sheet at the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore website

Description

The Singapore civil ensign is red with a white crescent and five stars in a white circle, crescent pointing up. Ratio 1:2. Source: Barraclough and Crampton 1981.

Željko Heimer, 5 July 1996

I measured the actual civil ensign of Singapore that I own and it comes to 86cm by 144cm which makes it 3:5.

Tom Koh, 17 January 2000

Oil tanker "Faith IV" of Singapore was stranded this week near Dunkerque. Looking at a photo of her on my newspaper, I have noticed that she did not flow the civil ensign which I expected (image above), but the national flag.

Armand du Payrat, 13 February 2001

Most South East Asian Commonwealth countries do not emphasise on the use of civil ensigns on ships and boats. You will notice that the national flag is used interchangeably with the civil ensign in most cases (at least as far as Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei is concerned). This might probably be due to the fact that the union jack is also used as an ensign and the tradition or more probably general ignorance stems from there.

Robert Kee, 14 February 2001

In 1997, when we visited Singapore on our boat, the general, but not unanimous, usage was the civil ensign both on Singapore flag vessels and on visiting vessels as a courtesy flag.

James L. Woodward, 26 March 2001

From my observations as a Singaporean, the civil ensign is mainly used by privately owned boats, at the rear.

Herman Felani, 24 August 2001

Especially important in the circular dated 20/7/99 are paragraph 2, the official ratio is 1:2, and paragraph 3, stating that the proper flag to be hoisted is the Ensign and not the National Flag. Under the Merchant Shipping Act (Chap 179), masters/owners are liable to a fine for violating this rule.

Herman Felani, 14 June 2002

Flag Legislation

From the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore website:

MARITIME AND PORT AUTHORITY OF SINGAPORE
MARINE CIRCULAR TO SHIPOWNERS
NO. 13 OF 1999
Date: 20/7/99
NATIONAL COLOURS FOR SINGAPORE SHIPS
Applicable to: This circular should be brought to the attention of owners, masters and officers of Singapore registered vessels.

This circular calls attention to Section 36 and 37 of the Merchant Shipping Act (Chap 179) which requires masters of Singapore ships to hoist proper national colours on entering or leaving any port.
Owners and Masters are reminded that the proper national colours for a Singapore registered vessel is a red ensign charged with a circle enclosing a crescent surmounted by five stars in a circle, all in white. The ratio of the width to the length of the ensign is one to two. The colours, crescent and the stars are from the Singapore flag.
The detailed dimension [image here] and stipulated colour [image here] of the flag is as attached. Owners and Masters are also reminded that the Singapore national flag does not substituted the Red Ensign.
Any further queries to this subject and circular could be directed to Ms Sim Wei Ling at 3756227.
LEE SENG KONG
DIRECTOR OF MARINE
MARITIME AND PORT AUTHORITY OF SINGAPORE

Dov Gutterman, 24 February 2002