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Houseflags of Norwegian maritime companies (W)

W. Gilbert
W. Hansen
W. Jebsen
Wani Shipping A/S
Westfal-Larsen & Co
Western Bulk Shipping

W. Gilbert

image by Jarig Bakker
Source: Brown's Flags and Funnels of British and Foreign Steamship Companies, 1926 [wed26]

Bergen - white flag, top and bottom thin red stripes; blue "G".
Jarig Bakker, 22 February 2005

W. Hansen

image by Jarig Bakker
Source: Brown's Flags and Funnels of British and Foreign Steamship Companies, 1926 [wed26]

Bergen - red flag, white "WJ"
Jarig Bakker, 22 February 2005

W. Jebsen

image by Jarig Bakker
Source: Brown's Flags and Funnels of British and Foreign Steamship Companies, 1926 [wed26]

Bergen - Red flag, white "WJ" Jarig Bakker, 22 February 2005

Wani Shipping A/S

image by Jarig Bakker, 28 February 2006
Source: Brown's Flags and Funnels of Shipping Companies of the World [lgr95]

Oslo - red flag, white disk, blue "W".
Jarig Bakker, 28 February 2006

Westfal-Larsen & Co

image by Jan Oskar Engene

image by James Dignan
Source: The dumpy book of ships and the sea [sam57]

This is also a Norwegian company, based in Bergen. Accordig to the plates of Norwegian houseflags dating from 1953 the letters in this flag should be red and from personal observation I believe this is still the case.
Jan Oskar Engene, 16 October, 2003

Formed in 1905 they changed name 1996 to Westfal-Larsen Management A/S. According to Loughrsn and Talbot-Booth the initial flag was a red swallowtailed pennant with a narrow blue horizontal band edged with narrower white bands [see W62 attached] which was, according to Loughran, replaced by the end of WW1. As the design, if not the proportions, was the same as the naval Commodore's broad pennant adopted 7.6.1906 (Kannik 1958) a change is not to be wondered at. If anything I am surprised that it took so long. All the main sources only show red lettering with the Brown and Talbot-Booth series and Loughran 1979 differing by not having any dot after the "L", Stewart 1963 has no dots at all and US Navy 1961 only has a dot under "o". Loughran differs by having a wider white band.

There is no indication by any of these publications that there was a flag with blue letters and I regard this as being very suspect with the source not being in my "authoritative" publications list. It is suspect like Brown 1926 which replaces the "W" with a "P" for no reason which is apparent, the likely error then being perpetuated by The 1933 Lloyds Reedereiflaggen cigarette card collection.

According to Loughran the lettering was changed in 1963 to the plain red "WL".
Neale Rosanoski, 11 December 2003

image by Jarig Bakker, 20 January 2006
Source: Brown's Flags and Funnels of Shipping Companies of the World [lgr95]

Bergen - horizontal triband of blue and white; on white red "WF"
Jarig Bakker, 20 January 2006

Western Bulk Shipping

image by Jorge Candeias