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Sweden and Norway 1858-1905

First National Rank Flags - 1858
National Rank Flags – 1875-1905

See also:

First National Rank Flags – 1858

The saluting instructions of 4 September 1858 abolished the common rank and command flags for the Norwegian and Swedish navies. In Norway, admirals were to use the war ensign of 1844 as rank flag (to be hoisted on different masts according to rank). The commissioning pennant was left unchanged. Three new rank flags were introduced:

A commodore, as commander of a squadron was given a red over white over blue over white over red (~6:1:2:1:6) with the union mark in top hoist corner.
Commanders of detachments had a swallow-tailed pennant (~1:3) divided red-white-blue-white-red (~5:1:2:1:5) with union mark in the top hoist corner.
Non-commissioned officers flew an all red pennant.

SOURCES:

· Beutlich, F: "Flag og kommandotegn", in C. Sparre (ed): Norges sjöforsvar 1814-1914, Kristiania, 1914
· Sundt, Trygve: "Norske orlogsflag og kommandotegn siden 1814", Norsk tidsskrift for sjövesen, Vol. 50, 1932, pp. 518-529

Jan Oskar Engene, 11 February 1997

Commodore

by Zeljko Heimer

Triangular pennant in the Norwegian national colours (no cross) with the herring salat in the canton. As in other cases when the saltire is included in non rectangular canton, the deformations make it a rather unpleasant sight.
Zeljko Heimer, 15 July 2002

Commander of a Detachment

by Zeljko Heimer

"Broad pennant" (i.e. swallow-tailed rectangular flag) in the Norwegian national colours (no cross, though I haven't noticed this in all places where maybe needed) with the canton of the herring salat.
Zeljko Heimer, 18 July 2002

Non-Commissioned Officers

by Jan Oskar Engene

National Rank Flags – 1875-1905

New saluting instructions of 8 April 1875 made some changes to the rank and command flags of the Norwegian navy.

A flag for the commander in chief of the navy was introduced. He was to have two crossed white command staffs in the red field under the union mark (bottom hoist).

Admirals were no longer to use the plain war ensign. Instead stars were added to denote their rank. An admiral was to have three white stars (1 over 2) in the bottom hoist red field, a vice-admiral two stars (side by side), and a rear-admiral a single star. The pennant previously used by commanders of detachments (introduced in 1858) was now to be used by commodores as commanders of squadrons. Commanders of detachments were now to use a pennant with the union mark at the hoist with the rest of the field divided horizontally red-white-blue-white-red. The plain red pennant of non-commissioned officers was retained.

Amendments of 1898

The pennant introduced in 1875 for commanders of detachments was replaced with a pennant identical to the one for use by commanders of detachments in the 1858 instructions. That is a red-white-blue-white-red horizontally striped pennant with union mark in the upper hoist corner, not covering all of the hoist as in the 1875 pennant).

Instructions of 1901

The salutation instructions of 21 October 1901 introduced two additional flags.

The Minister of Defence was to fly the war ensign with the Norwegian arms in white in the bottom hoist red field.

The commanding general (or commander in chief of the army) was to fly a square red flag with the Norwegian lion in gold over two crossed command staffs also in gold. The lion faced the fly. This flag was used to 1905, when it was dropped because it was too similar to the then adopted royal standard.

Commodores as commanders of squadrons were now to use the broad pennant wih the union mark in top hoist.

SOURCES:

· Beutlich, F: "Flag og kommandotegn", in C. Sparre (ed): Norges sjöforsvar 1814-1914, Kristiania, 1914
· Reglement for saluter fra rigets faestninger, Kristiania, 1901
· Salutreglement med Tillaeg om Flage of Kommandotegn, Christiania, 1875

Jan Oskar Engene, 12 February 1997

Commander in Chief - Navy

by Zeljko Heimer

The state flag with the herring salat in canton and two white batons in saltire in lower hoist quarter.
Zeljko Heimer, 18 July 2002

Admiral - 1875-1905

by Zeljko Heimer

Herring Salat in canton and three white stars in lower hoist quarter. As I have noted when dealing with the state flag, the 1844 pattern on which this one should have been modeled is shown by Engene with curious middle tongue. Either the flags followed it (not shown so by Engene) or the state flag was changed in usage to the modern look (with herring salat, of course), possibly silently. Third possibility is that the "odd 1844" is erroneous.
Zeljko Heimer, 16 July 2002

Vice Admiral

by Zeljko Heimer

The state flag with the herring salat in canton and two white stars in lower hoist quarter. I don't know if we have covered it, but I just remembered, and this seems the most adequate place to put it - the post-1905 admiral flags probably retained the 1-2-3 stars system until some modern date when they were changed to 2-3-4 (and 1-star was recently added finally). This may be also good spot to ask - where there flags of generals, yacht clubs, postal ensigns etc. before 1905 to match the current usage (at least some of those may have been there)?
Zeljko Heimer, 16 July 2002

I am not sure I understand what you are asking about. The major change in 1905 was the total removal of the union badge from those flags in which it was still retained - that is military flags and the yacht ensign. The union badge was removed from the state, post and customs flags in 1899. The yacht ensign also had a change of cipher, as Oscar II was replaced by Haakon VII. Further, the Royal flag was changed into a heraldic banner of the national coat of arms. Before 1905 the royal flag was the state flag/war ensign with the union coat of arms in the intersection of the arms of the cross. I have not made images of this flag because the coat of arms is too complex to draw (for me at least).
Jan Oskar Engene, 17 July 2002

I guess it is this arms in Arnaud Bunel's "Heraldique Europeene" website here.
Sanitago Dotor, 18 July 2002

Right. And with two crowns above the escutcheon to indicate not one united kingdom, but two kingdoms sharing the same king. It was introduced by Oscar I (father of Charles XV) to promote equality within the union, for the same reason that they both got new flags at the time, with the same union badge. The union arms were only used by royals and the foreign service. Both states kept their individual coats of arms for internal use, and the Norwegian lion was removed from the Swedish coat of arms.
Lars Roede, 18 July 2002

Rear Admiral

by Zeljko Heimer

The state flag with the herring salat in canton and one white star in lower hoist quarter.
Zeljko Heimer, 18 July 2002

Detachment Commander

by Zeljko Heimer

Triangular pennant of the Norwegian national colours (stripes only, no cross) with the herring salat at the hoist. After just a two dozen years this flag was abandoned and the previous one was reintroduced.
Zeljko Heimer, 17 July 2002

The blue stripe with white fimbriation is jut a little bit wider then the yellow stripe. Is this correct? The same width would be more logical IMHO.
Mark Sensen, 18 July 2002

The difference is, no doubt because the difference in the relative width of the stripes in the Norwegian and Swedish flags. So, what do we do - make the Swedish stripe smaller or Norwegian wider? (The latter, I guess might have well been practice even if the different was prescribed).
Zeljko Heimer, 18 July 2002