Mexico - Merchant marine: Registration flags

Banderas de matrícula

Last modified: 2003-01-25 by juan manuel gabino villascán
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• Registration flags
  • 1858 - 1888 (?) registration flags
  • Ca. 1923 - ?
• List of ports with their own registration flags
• Unidentified registration flag of 1923 - ?

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"These ensigns shall be used by merchant ships of the Republic of Mexico, independently of the national ensign, in order to show the department they belong to. Their size is proportional to the size of the vessel."

I guess these were not really ensigns --same case as with their Spanish predecessors-- they were not flown at the stern and they did not indicate nationality. Or maybe they did? Does Olivier Corre mention where were they supposed to be flown?
Santiago Dotor, Dec. 20, 2001

No, he does not. After giving the caption of the plate (see my precedent message, he adds "from which it can be understood that the flag is flown on one of the masts".
I often, apparently improperly, call "ensign" any kind of flag used at sea. I guess from your question that "ensign" should be used for national flags at sea only. Therefore, this French flags has a wrong title (Arrondissement ensigns...), to be corrected very soon.
Ivan Sache, Dec, 20, 2001

In 1883 the British Consul at La Coruna referring to what I take to be the same sort of flag wrote that, "Spanish fly matriculation flag of vessel at mainmast to show what port she belongs to."
David Potero, Dec, 22, 2001

Legras shows the ensigns for six departments (Vera Cruz, Campeche, Tampico, Isla del Carmen, Tabasco, and Túxpam) located on the Gulf of Mexico. They are also shown in Siebmacher.

The ensigns for the other departments were apparently never published in a flag book. The archives of the SHOM have kept a gouach plate, signed by the Mexican Minister of War and Navy, and sent to the French authorities. The plate is entitled "Banderas nacionales, de matricula e insignias de la Republica mexicana" ("National flags, registration flags and ensigns of the Mexican Republic").

In the 1889 edition of "Album des Pavillon"s, the registration ensigns are no longer shown, and it is therefore probable they were suppressed short before 1889. The design of the eagle on the Mexican plate mentioned above seems to indicate it dates from Porfirio Diaz presidency (1876-1911).

The flags are shown in:

Código Nacional de Señales para uso de las estaciones semafóricas, buques de guerra y mercantes nacionales
By Commander Permanent of the National Navy Guillermo León Tagle
Approved by the Secretaría de Guerra y Marina
Talleres Gráficos de la Nación
México, 1923.

In this value book are shown the registration flags (Banderas de matrícula) of 28 Mexican ports plus four unidentified flown around 1923.
The flags keep the siplified design as those used between 1851-1888, but by any reason the flags changed. According the author, the Mexican Navy Administration is divided also into two Departamentos (Departments): Departamento del Golfo and Departamento del Pacífico.

Juan Manuel Gabino Villascán, January 20, 2002.

List of ports with their own registration flags

The registration ensigns are as follows:

Unidentified registration flags of 1923 - ?

Those flags are illustrated in the Código Nacional de Señales para uso de las estaciones semafóricas, buques de guerra y mercantes nacionales, as Departamento del Golfo's, but there is no names.

The flags are:

	3:5
by Juan Manuel Gabino Villascán, October 06, 2001.

	3:5
by Juan Manuel Gabino Villascán, October 06, 2001.

	3:5
by Juan Manuel Gabino Villascán, October 06, 2001.

	3:5
by Juan Manuel Gabino Villascán, October 06, 2001.