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Continental Navy (U.S.)

Historical

Lexington Ensign
Stripes of Other Colors
Privateer

See also:

Lexington Ensign

image by Tom Gregg

In The Oxford Companion to Ships & the Sea, 1976:

'... The first Lexington was the brigantine Wild Duck purchased by Congress and renamed Lexington in 1776. Under the command of John Barry she avoided the British frigate Roebuck which was just inside the entrance to Delaware Bay and succeeded in reaching the open sea. Off Cape Charles, Va, she captured the sloop Edward, a tender of the British frigate Liverpool, manned by a crew of twenty nine men of the British Navy, the first prize brought into the port of Philadelphia...'

Jarig Baker, 28 April 1999

Stripes of Other Colors

image by Rick Wyatt

A Grand Union flag with Red and Green stripes is described in the ships chandlers reports for the port of Philadelphia for the winter of 1776-1777. Apparently the different ships in Commodore Hopkins' tiny fleet were identified by using stripes other that red and white. Because others are mentioned as well.
James J. Ferrigan III, 28 December 1998

Privateer

image by Randy Young, 2 August 2001

One example of an American revolutionary flag with stripes other than red and white is that of an unidentified American privateer, which "sported a black and yellow striped ensign. While at Martinique in 1776 the brig Reprisal flew a similar flag of yellow and white."
Source: Mastai, The Stars and the Stripes, [mas73]
Randy Young, 2 August 2001