Danish Asian and East Asian Company Ensigns

Last modified: 2025-08-30 by klaus-michael schneider
Keywords: denmark | danish east asian company | dansk asiatisk compagnie | east asia | dok |
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Danish Asian Company

1770 Illustration

Loughran (1979) shows "The flag of the Dansk Asiatisk Compagnie was derived from the Danish national flag ... It was distinguished from the Dannebrog by being swallowtailed, and defaced in the centre by arms which varied over the years. The two examples illustrated date from 1770 and 1800 respectively."
Željko Heimer, 7 June 2004

1800 Illustration

1802 Illustration

Loughran (1979) shows a third flag of this company, flown by the frigate "Kronprinssen" of 1802, and is completely different. This flag is rather a house flag - that was, I suppose, hoisted on "mainmast" or some other suitable place, while the usual ensign was hoisted at stern.
Željko Heimer, 7 June 2004

What was the activity of the Danish Asian Company?
Nozomi Kariyasu, 7 June 2004

Didn´t they have treaty ports in China? The Danish flag is one of those shown on the Shanghai International Settlement flag.
James Dignan, 8 June 2004

Danish East Asian Company

The state ensign defaced with the golden inscription "D. Ø. K." along the horizontal crossbar and with a rectangular patch in the canton containing a light blue top-towards-the-hoist slanted cabled anchor and in its lower hoist corner letters "ØK".
Željko Heimer, 2 June 2004

Østasiatiske Kompagni (East Asia Company)

The website of the National Maritime Museum describes the house flag of "the house flag of Det Østasiatiske Kompagni A/S, København. A white flag with a blue anchor placed diagonally and fouled by a chain and the letters "Ø. K." below. The flag is made of a wool and synthetic fibre bunting. It has a cotton hoist and is machine sewn. The design is printed.
Source: British National Maritime Museum

Jarig Bakker, 23 Aug 2004

Det Østasiatiske Kompagni A/S, Københav: white, a blue fouled anchor placed in a diagonal position (the flukes toward lower right), in the left lower corner the blue letters "Ø. K." Two versions are shown on Josef Nüsse´s site under "Flags", "Danish Shipping Companies", "Seite 6": first, the flag with the letters nearer the anchor, which is bigger and has a chain rather than a cable, second, said flag in a split Dannebrog´s upper hoist corner and golden letters "D. Ø. K.". "K." in the centre of the cross, horizontally arranged.
Jan Mertens, 11 Dec 2003

Østasiatiske Kompagni. The 2nd flag mentioned by Jan Mertens has the company house flag in the canton flying from a pole which is angled bendwise. This differs from that shown in "Das große flaggenbuch" which only has a panel of the flag and is defined as used by sailing vessels in overseas service. I suspect it may have been used as an Ensign including for motor vessels judging by an illustration of the "Selandia" 1912 in "Merchant Ships of the World in colour 1910-1929" byLaurence Dunn which has the houseflag flying from the mainmast and what seems to be this 2nd flag as the Ensign from the stern.
Neale Rosanoski, 11 Sep 2004

Particular Flag reported 1865

It was a splitflag in Dannebbrogsrød with golden serifed inscription "POH" on the centre of the horizontal crossbar.
Source: Steenbergen (1865), plate 10, image 357
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 9 Aug 2025

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