Last modified: 2021-05-29 by rob raeside
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Cable & Wireless changed their flag to blue with a white "digital" world globe.
Neale Rosanoski, 23 February 2004
In 1969 the General Post Office, a government department, became a government-owned public corporation and was separated into two divisions, Posts and Telecoms. The cable ships went to Telecoms. In 1981 Telecoms was privatised as British Telecoms. In 1994 the cable ships were sold to Cable & Wireless. In 1999 the marine division of Cable & Wireless was sold to Global Crossing Inc. and became part of Global Marine Systems Ltd. Only those ships that were originally owned by British Telecoms, CS's Sovereign, Iris and Monarch, are permitted to wear the defaced Blue Ensign. All other British registered GMS ships wear the Red Ensign.
image located by David Prothero
The badge shows an hour glass in the hand of Old Father Time, being shattered by an electrical discharge. The ensign was originally granted for the cable ships of the General Post Office on 22 January 1877.
image by Jarig Bakker, based on the website of the National Maritime Museum.
From the website of the National
Maritime Museum, "the house flag of Cable and Wireless (Marine) Ltd, London.
A blue flag with a yellow motif of an arrow circling a globe. The flag is made
of a synthetic fibre bunting with the device appliquéd in nylon fabric. It has a
cotton hoist and a rope and wooden toggle is attached.
The Imperial wireless and cable conference of 1928 recommended the foundation of
a holding company and an operating company combining wireless and cable
interests, in order to keep the strategically important but unprofitable
undersea cables in British hands. This was achieved through a merger of the
communications interests of the cable companies and Marconi. The resulting
company began as Imperial and International Communications Ltd but changed its
name to Cable and Wireless Ltd in 1934. The Cable and Wireless Marine Service
originated in the cable laying and repairing activities of the original
telegraph companies.
Jarig Bakker, 8 August 2004
Of the mass of companies which combined along the way in making Cable & Wireless Ltd. are at least two others who had their own flags. These are West Coast of America Telegraph Co. Ltd. with a blue flag showing a white grapnel and cable, sometimes the grapnel being yellow and Western Telegraph Co. Ltd. with a blue swallowtail and an ornate yellow and black border except at hoist, the emblem being a yellow and black zigzag angled flash with in the lower fly the white letters "WTC" with the "T" being taller. According to Talbot-Booth these flags, together with that of Eastern Telegraph Co. Ltd., were replaced in 1939 by the Cable & Wireless flag although in his WW2 Merchant Ships editions he still shows the companies operating under their own names. Despite this Brown, which had shown the same version for Western Telegraph Co., in 1943 shows a different flag doing away with the border and changing the lettering to "WTCo." as shown below:
image by Miles Li, 13 August 2008
IN 1934, IMPERIAL and International Communications, formerly the Eastern
Telegraph Company, became Cable & Wireless. The new name was designed to more
clearly reflect the combined radio and cable services which it offered, without
reference to the Empire. (http://www.cwhistory.com/history/html/CableWire.html)
. The flag shown is a yellow fimbriated red cross on a dark blue field, with a
Tudor crown in the canton, and C & W in yellow in the lower fly.
Colin Duke, 17 January 2005
This company was known as Cairns, Noble & Co. in the 1950s.
James Dignan, 8 October 2003
The same flag is shown (#1630, p. 114) in Lloyd's Book of House Flags and
Funnels (1912) for Cairns, Noble & Co. (Services to Canada), a Newcastle-based
company.
https://research.mysticseaport.org/item/l011061/l011061-c008/#79
Ivan Sache, 3 May 2021
Cairn Line of Steamships Ltd. The quartered blue and white flag is actually that of William Thomson &
Sons who were, according to Talbot-Booth, absorbed around 1891 and then
purchased in 1907 which sounds rather back to front. They themselves originated
in 1833 as Cairns & Young which had a red flag with a white delta triangle
bearing the intertwined black letters "CY", the
triangle being a symbolic "cairn". They then became Cairns, Young & Noble in
1892 and it is from around this time that they became known as the Cairn Line of
Steamships using the red flag minus the lettering. Both the Cairns and the
Thomson flag were used from 1907 and then in 1928 the company was taken over by
Furness Withy and it appears that this saw the official formation of the Cairn
Line of Steamship Ltd. to operate the shipping under the quartered Thomson flag
although sources note that the old Cairn flag was still to be sighted on
occasions.
Neale Rosanoski, 19 February 2004
image by Ivan Sache, 28 April 2021
Lloyd's Book of House Flags and Funnels (1912) shows the house flag of Cairns,
Noble & Co. (#914, p. 80) as red with a white triangle.
https://research.mysticseaport.org/item/l011061/l011061-c008/45/
Ivan Sache, 28 April 2021
image by Ivan Sache, 27 April 2021
Lloyd's Book of House Flags and Funnels (1912) shows the house flag of David
Cairns (#827, p. 76), a Leith-based company, as white with a blue saltire
cantonned with the red letters "D" (left) and "C" (right).
https://research.mysticseaport.org/item/l011061/l011061-c008/41/
Ivan Sache, 27 April 2021
image by Ivan Sache, 27 April 2021
Lloyd's Book of House Flags and Funnels (1912) shows the house flag of R.
Cairns & Co. (#837, p. 76), a Leith-based company, as swallow-tailed, white with
a blue border and a red saltire, charged in the center with a black lozenge
inscribing a white "C".
https://research.mysticseaport.org/item/l011061/l011061-c008/41/
Ivan Sache, 27 April 2021
image by Rob Raeside, 27 April 2019
Caledonian MacBrayne, Hebridean & Clyde Ferries. A triangular flag, red,
with a black triangular stripe along the top and a yellow disc charged with a
red lion rampant, but with the tail altered
from a "waving" position to one "close to the back" in order to fit into the
disc. The black edging at the top is unusual but possibly it is meant to be in line
with the funnel which is red bearing the emblem and has a black top.
Neale Rosanoski, 19 February 2004
The current red CalMac flag with the black top and yellow badge is taken from
the funnel design adopted after MacBraynes and Caledonian Steam packet were
amalgamated. The design is also incorporated into a coat of arms granted by the
Lyon Court. In the arms it appears in a more regular form on a shield with the
black having the same depth across the width of the shield.
CFS
Williamson, 20 April 2019
image by
Rob Raeside
The company was formed in 1973 by the merger of the Caledonian Steam Packet Co.
Ltd. and David MacBrayne Ltd. The Caledonian SP Co. was formed in 1889 and had a
"navy" yellow pennant bearing the red lion rampant.
Neale Rosanoski, 19 February 2004
image by Ivan Sache, 30 April 2021
"Version 2" is shown, with a different rendition of the lion in Lloyd's Book of
House Flags and Funnels (1912) (#1238, p. 95) as the house flag of Caledonian
Steam Packet Co., Ltd.
https://research.mysticseaport.org/item/l011061/l011061-c008/#60
Ivan Sache, 30 April 2021
image by Rob Raeside, 27 April 2019
David MacBrayne Ltd., with origins dating from 1851, used a blue pennant
with overlapping saltires of red over white with
sources of the latter varying as to the amount of field which the saltires
occupied with some squashing them up into the first 1/3 or so of the flag.
Neale Rosanoski, 19 February 2004
Lloyd's Book of House Flags and Funnels (1912) shows this flag of David
MacBrayne, Ltd. (#1669, p. 116), a Glasgow-based shipping company.
https://research.mysticseaport.org/item/l011061/l011061-c008/#81
Ivan Sache, 3 May 2021
image by Rob Raeside, 27 April 2019
The
original flag of the new company combined the two by moving the saltires towards
the fly and placing the yellow disc with the lion in the hoist. I get the impression that the change to the current flag occurred in
the early 1990s. Duncan Haws includes it in his 1994 Merchant Fleets No. 26 but
does not show the upper black edging and he also shows the lion as guardant. As
he also shows this for the funnel and photos prove that is not the case, I have
my reservations although his version may have resulted from a proposal. One
point of uncertainty that I have with all these flags is their proportions with
sources tending to show them as in a more triangular format whereas the early
flags, especially, may have been long and narrow pennants.
Neale Rosanoski, 19 February 2004
David MacBrayne was one of three partners in David Hutcheson's company and
eventually took exclusive control in 1879 after the retirement of David
Hutcheson in 1876 and Alexander Hutcheson in 1878. MacBrayne died in 1907, aged
92, having worked up until the previous year, by which time the operation had
become David MacBrayne Ltd. It was reconstructed in 1928 as David MacBrayne
(1928) Ltd, owned jointly by Coast Lines Ltd and the LMS railway. As David
MacBrayne Ltd from 1934, 50 percent remained with the private Coast Lines Ltd
until it was purchased by the Scottish Transport Group in 1969 and on January 1,
1973 was merged with STG's other subsidiary, the Caledonian Steam Packet Company
to form Caledonian - MacBrayne. MacBrayne's territory was the Western Isles with
Oban as base, but a regular service was run from Glasgow (later Gourock) to
Tarbet and Ardrishaig on Loch Fyne for delivering mail and passengers for onward
connections to the Western Isles. Marketed since the 19th century as the "Royal
Route" with reference to an earlier visit to the area by Queen Victoria,
MacBraynes ran some well-known, well-loved and long-lived steamers on the Clyde
until the end of the 1969 season when the diesel-electric vessel Lochfyne was
withdrawn.
Phil Nelson, 18 October 2003
image by Ivan Sache, 23 April 2021
Lloyd's Book of House Flags and Funnels (1912) shows the house flag of the
Caledonian Steam Fishing Co., Ltd. (#388, p. 55), an Aberdeen-based company, as
blue with a white shield charged with a red cross.
https://research.mysticseaport.org/item/l011061/l011061-c008/#20
Ivan
Sache, 23 April 2021
British Shipping lines: continued