Sovereign Military Order of Malta - Naval Flags

Last modified: 2006-03-18 by martin karner
Keywords: malta | s.m.o.m. | sovereign and military order of malta | christian orders | christian | catholic |
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On this page:

• Historical Ensigns of the Order
• Miscellaneous Naval Flags of the Order
• Historical Signal Flags

See also:

• Sovereign Military Order of Malta
• Sovereign Military Order of Malta - The Maltese Cross
• Sovereign Military Order of Malta - Grand Master of the Order
• Christian orders
• Christian flags (index page)

Historical Ensigns of the Order

In "Flags in South Africa and the world", Proceedings of the XVIIth International Congress of Vexillology, there is a rich paper by Adrian Strickland, entitled: "The vexillological heritage of the Knights of Saint-John in Malta" (pp. 277-287) . I have extracted from the valuable paper a few Historical ensigns of the order:

In the time of Grand Master Rohan (1775-1797), additional ensigns were flown along with the Order's ensign:

pennants
by Ivan Sache, 29 February 2000

Round-tailed guidons bearing the Order's cross
by Ivan Sache, 29 February 2000

The guidons considered as the forerunner of the present Grand Master's standard.

Naval jack
by Ivan Sache, 29 February 2000

A square version of the Order's flag was used as naval jack.

Gonfanon
by Ivan Sache, 29 February 2000

A gonfanon was flown on the ceremonial galley of the Grand Master.
Ivan Sache, 29 February 2000

Miscellaneous Naval Flags of the Order

In "Flags in South Africa and the world", Proceedings of the XVIIth International Congress of Vexillology, there is a rich paper by Adrian Strickland, entitled: "The vexillological heritage of the Knights of Saint-John in Malta" (pp. 277-287). I have extracted from the valuable paper a few miscellaneous naval flags of the Order:

The flagship of the Order ("Captana") used additional flags, namely:

by Ivan Sache, 29 February 2000

The flag of Jerusalem (with red crosses) to signal Holy Mass was being celebrated.
Ivan Sache, 29 February 2000

by Ivan Sache, 29 February 2000

A red flag with two white crescents and two golden stars to call all surgeons to report on flagship.
Ivan Sache, 29 February 2000

Historical Signal Flags

I came across images of part of a series of stamps issued by the Order of Malta (SMOM) concerning signals used by the Order's Navy. While only the first set of four seems to be entirely focused on flag signals, I thought I would pass all eight images in the hope that the old-fashioned (Italian?) inscriptions can be deciphered.
Here are the stamps series: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8.
Mike Oettle, 27 Febuary 2004