Amusing EBay Description
- Thread starter Kathryn Klos
- Start date
Greg Nolan
enthusiast
So why would an upstate NY firm paint a rebel flag on their paddles????
Larry Meyer
Wooden Canoes are in the Blood
Well of course that’s not the confederate flag. It’s the Red Ensign, the official flag, with lots of variants, of Canada before 1967. The Maple Leaf flag replaced it. So a firm in upstate New York would do well stocking flags for nearby Ontarians, etc.
For bonus points, can anyone identify the other two standard British naval ensigns and the ships on which they are used (without looking it up)?
Benson
Benson
Larry Meyer
Wooden Canoes are in the Blood
Flags and their history and design are a bit like gynecology . . . no, make that genealogy, in that once you start looking at it closely you wander off into all kinds of sidebars, back paths and sidetracks. Whoever saw in that a confederate flag did see that the confederate battle flag and the Red Ensign did have a common design element, the so called, St Andrews Cross, the diagonal bars. The Union Jack is a combination of the St Andrews Cross, which is associated with Scotland, and two other crosses, whose names I forget, associated with Ireland and the English Crown.
Anyway, it all gets very ethereal, like assembling a Coat of Arms and reminds me of Mark Twain’s mockery of coats of arms – cigars puissant on a field of argent serpentines, or something like that.
Anyway, it all gets very ethereal, like assembling a Coat of Arms and reminds me of Mark Twain’s mockery of coats of arms – cigars puissant on a field of argent serpentines, or something like that.
Larry Meyer
Wooden Canoes are in the Blood
My favorite explication of the meaning of flags comes from Roy Blount, Jr, somebody whose writing has the power to make me laugh about the fault lines in American politics these days. Born in Georgia, he now lives in Western Massachusetts. Below is how he sees one of those cleavages, the difference between North and South, with respect to flags.
“In October 2001, an American flag was stolen in Massachusetts and another one in North Carolina. I know of the first from a photograph in the Berkshire Eagle, in which a reproachful looking elderly couple are holding up a hand–lettered cardboard sign that says, ‘Please return our flag. Shame on you.’
I know of the second from a photograph in the Independent Weekly of Chapel Hill, N. C. in which an angry-looking middle-aged man is standing beneath professional plastic letter signage, bolted onto the front of his house and floodlit, that says, ‘I hope the sorry piece of **** who stole my U. S. flag displays it with pride.’
The thinking is clearer in the Northern sign. There is more going on in the Southern one.”
“In October 2001, an American flag was stolen in Massachusetts and another one in North Carolina. I know of the first from a photograph in the Berkshire Eagle, in which a reproachful looking elderly couple are holding up a hand–lettered cardboard sign that says, ‘Please return our flag. Shame on you.’
I know of the second from a photograph in the Independent Weekly of Chapel Hill, N. C. in which an angry-looking middle-aged man is standing beneath professional plastic letter signage, bolted onto the front of his house and floodlit, that says, ‘I hope the sorry piece of **** who stole my U. S. flag displays it with pride.’
The thinking is clearer in the Northern sign. There is more going on in the Southern one.”
Greg Nolan
enthusiast
As I understand it, the Union Jack contains the Cross of St. George (the red + cross), the Cross of St. Andrew (the white x), and the Cross of St. Patrick (the red x). And as I understand it, the Confederate Battle Flag contains a blue Cross of st. Andrew -- chosen because it was more "heraldic" than "religious." But as to British naval ensigns - way beyond me.
OP
OP
Kathryn Klos
squirrel whisperer
Fun with Flags... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xl12Sp1KiEk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xl12Sp1KiEk
Mark Adams
all wood nut
most of my fleet flies the "White Ensign..."
Wow, are you a member of the British royal family? I worked one summer at the Loch Eil Outward Bound School in Scotland many years ago and the dirty picture below shows the red ensign flying from our support boat. It was explained to me then that British civilian vessels flew the red ensign, the Royal Navy used the blue ensign, and only the royal family's boats used the white ensign. The actual rules outlined at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_ensign and elsewhere are a bit more complicated.
Benson
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Mark Adams
all wood nut
I believe that the white ensign was also flown when ships were under trials.
