KINGDOM OF SARDINIA NAVAL FLAGS

KINGDOM OF SARDINIA

NAVAL ENSIGNS & FLAGS • EIGHTEENTH CENTURY-1848

The ruling dynasty of the Kingdom of Sardinia was the House of Savoy, and the Savoy Cross—white on a blue-bordered red field—served as the basic model for Sardinian naval flags. In the eighteenth century, the war ensign was of simple design: blue with a square red canton bearing a white cross. The masthead pennant, which survived unchanged until 1848, had the cross at the hoist and a blue fly. In 1802, however, a new ensign was introduced, with a canton of the Genoa Cross (white field, red cross) charged with the Savoy arms. In 1814 the canton was altered to combine the crosses of Savoy, Genoa and Sardinia.

The next Sardinian war ensign, adopted in 1816, featured a revised canton superimposing the crosses of Savoy, Sardinia and Genoa. Also introduced at this time was a naval jack, identical to the canton of the ensign. Some sources state that in 1827 these flags were modified by the addition of a royal crown, but this is not entirely certain. In any case, the 1816 designs were abolished in 1848, when Sardinia adopted the green-white-red tricolor, charged with the Savoy arms, that was to become the flag of the united Kingdom of Italy in 1866.

Flag Proportions: Sardinian naval flags of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries are usually illustrated in 2:3 proportions. The ensigns and jacks of the 1816-48 period probably were made in those proportions, but this is less certain for earlier flags.