Ensign

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Ensign

An ensign is a distinguishing flag

Flag

A flag is a piece of cloth, often flown from a pole or Mast , generally used symbolically for signaling or identification. The term flag is also used to refer to the graphic design employed by a flag, or to its depiction in another medium....
of a ship or a military unit; or a distinguishing token, emblem, or badge, such as a symbol of office. The word has also given rise to the military rank of "ensign"

Ensign (rank)

Ensign is a junior rank of Officer #Commissioned officers in the militaries of some countries, normally in the infantry or navy. As the junior officer in an infantry regiment was traditionally the carrier of the ensign, the rank itself acquired the name....
, a rank of junior officer once responsible for bearing the ensign of his unit.

The word is derived from the French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken around the world by around 80 million people as first language, by 190 million as second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired tongue, with significant speakers in 54 countries....
enseigne from the Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
plural insignia and is more particularly used for a military or naval standard or banner.

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Maritime ensigns

In nautical use, an ensign in the form of a flag is usually flown at the stern

Stern

The stern is the rear or aft part of a ship or boat, technically defined as the area built up over the sternpost, extending upwards from the counter to the taffrail....
of a ship or boat to indicate its nationality. Ensigns may also be flown from the gaff

Gaff rig

Gaff rig is a sailing rig in which the sail is four-cornered, fore-and-aft rigged, controlled at its Parts of a sail#Non-triangular fore and aft sails and, usually, its entire Parts of a sail#Non-triangular fore and aft sails by a spar called the gaff....
of a ship, and may be shifted to a yardarm when the ship is underway, where it is known as a steaming ensign. Vexillologists

Vexillology

Vexillology is the scholarly study of flags. The word is a synthesis of the Latin word vexillum and the suffix -logy, meaning "study of"....
distinguish three varieties of a national flag

National flag

File:dannebrog.jpgA national flag is a flag that symbolises a country. The flag is flown by the government, but usually can be flown by citizens of that country as well....
when used as an ensign:

*A civil ensign
Civil ensign

The civil ensign is the national flag flown by civil ships to denote nationality.Beside the naval ensign, the civil ensign is one of the two original types of the national flag....
(usage symbol

) is worn by merchant and pleasure vessels.

A state ensign or government ensign (usage symbol (
) is worn by non-military government vessels, such as coast guard
Coast guard

A coast guard is a national organization responsible for various services at sea. However the term implies widely different responsibilities in different countries....
ships.
A naval ensign (usage symbol (
) is used by a country's navy
Navy

A navy is the branch of a nation's military forces principally designated for naval warfare and amphibious warfare; namely, lake- or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions....
.

Many countries don't distinguish between these uses, and employ their standard national flag in all three contexts; such a multiuse flag is termed a national ensign. Others (like the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
, Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia....
, Russia

Russia

Russia , or the Russian Federation , is a list of countries spanning more than one continent country extending over much of northern Eurasia....
, South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa, also known by Official names of South Africa, is a country located at the southern tip of the continent of Africa....
, Australia

Australia

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the southern hemisphere comprising the Australia of the world's smallest continent, the major island of Tasmania, and numerous list of islands of Australia in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Oceans....
, New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses , and numerous Islands of New Zealand, most notably Stewart Island/Rakiura and the Chatham Islands....
, and Japan

Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south....
) use a variant of the national flag as the naval ensign. Such flags are often strictly regulated as usable only on warships; civilian ships, with very few exceptions, would not fly naval ensigns. Distinct civil ensigns are also common. In rare cases a distinct design is used for the state ensign, such as the blue ensign

Blue Ensign

File:Commandant Ducuing 061030-N-5555T-017.jpgThe Blue Ensign is a flag, one of several British ensigns, used by certain organisations or territories associated with the United Kingdom....
of the United Kingdom.

If a warship goes into battle, large versions of naval ensigns (called battle ensign

Battle ensign

A battle ensign is the name given to a large war flag which is flown on a warship's mast just before going into battle.The flag identified the allegiance of the ship in what could be a very confusing situation, with thick clouds of gunsmoke obscuring the ships in action, hence the large size of these ensigns typical for the Royal Navy from...
s) are used.

Heraldric ensigns

In heraldry

Heraldry

Heraldry is the profession, study, or art of devising, granting, and blazoning Coat of arms and ruling on questions of rank or protocol, as exercised by an officer of arms....
, an ensign is the ornament or sign, such as the crown, coronet, or mitre, borne above the charge

Charge (heraldry)

In heraldry and vexillology, a charge is an image occupying the field on an Escutcheon . Charge can also be a verb; for example, if an escutcheon bears three Lion s, then it is said to be charged with three lions. It is important to distinguish between divisions of the field and charges, and to note that charges can themselves be c...
or arms

Coat of arms

A coat of arms, more properly called an armorial achievement, armorial bearings or often just arms for short, in European tradition, is a design belonging to a particular person and used by them in a wide variety of ways....
.

Military standards

In many modern militaries, a "standard" refers to a type of ensign placed on a vehicle to indicate the rank of the occupant. This may be in the form of a decal on a windshield (such as the blue decals used to mark officers' cars in the United States armed forces), a license plate depicting an officer's rank insigne, or a small flag mounted on the hood or fender. These are the "standards" referred to in the 10th General Order for Sentries

General Orders for Sentries

General Orders for Sentries is the official title of a set of rules governing guard duty in the Military of the United States. While any guard posting has rules that may go without saying , these orders are carefully detailed and particularly stressed in the United States Navy, United States Marine Corps, and United States Coast Guard....
used by the United States Navy

United States Navy

The United States Navy is the navy of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy currently has approximately 331,682 personnel on active duty as of 31 December 2008 and 124,000 in the United States Navy Reserve....
, which require subordinates to salute when the flags or placards are displayed "not cased."

Air ensigns

Ensign of the Royal Australian Air Force

With the creation of independent air forces and the growth in civil aviation

Civil aviation

Civil aviation is one of two major categories of flying, representing all non-military aviation, both private and commercial. Most of the countries in the world are members of the International Civil Aviation Organization and work together to establish common standards and recommended practices for civil aviation through that agency....
in the first half of the 20th century, a range of distinguishing flags and ensigns were adopted. Such ensigns may be divided into air force ensigns (such as the Royal Air Force Ensign

Royal Air Force Ensign

The Royal Air Force Ensign is the official flag which is used to represent the Royal Air Force. The Ensign has a field of air force blue with the Union Flag in the canton and the Royal Air Force roundels in the middle of the fly....
) and civil air ensigns. Air ensigns are often light blue or air force blue

Air Force blue

Air Force blue is a medium shade of the colour Azure . This shade gets its name from the medium Blue-gray colour which is associated with the Royal Air Force and other air forces which use the colour to mark out their particular Military service identity....
in colour.

Ensign

Maritime ensigns

Heraldric ensigns

Military standards

Air ensigns

See also