KINGDOM OF PORTUGAL

NAVAL ENSIGNS & FLAGS  •  1830-1911

Prior to 1830, the Kingdom of Portugal did not possess a national flag as the term is understood today. Generally the royal flag (the personal flag of the monarch) or some variant thereof was employed as a naval ensign. In 1830, however, a proper national flag was adopted: a vertical bicolor of blue and white charged with the crowned arms of Portugal. Two versions of this flag existed. That for use on land had stripes of equal width, while that for use at sea (illustrated below) had the blue stripe offset toward the hoist so that it occupied about a third of the field. The naval jack was white with a blue border, charged with the crowned arms. Up to the late nineteenth century, the flag illustrated below as that of the Minister of Marine was the rank flag for all admirals, exact rank being denoted by the mast from which it was flown. But the demise of the sailing navy made this system obsolete and by 1900 a complete range of naval rank flags existed. A full admiral commanding the Navy flew a flag with two stars over one. Other full admirals had blue flags with the stars arranged in a diagonal line offset toward the hoist. The Rear-Admiral (Subordinate) flag was used on those occasions when two or more admirals of that rank were present; the senior flew the normal rank flag and all others flew the subordinate rank flag. The Admiral Superintendent was responsible for the Navy's administrative and support services; he was entitled to a distinctive flag. Distinguishing pennants also existed for commanders of naval dockyards and port captains. These flags lasted until 1911 when a revolution, the abolition of the monarchy and the proclamation of a republic led to the adoption of the current national flag of Portugal. Flag Proportions: Most naval flags of the Kingdom of Portugal had 2:3 proportions. The jack was square.

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