House Flags of U.S. Shipping Companies: H

Halcyon SS Co.

Halcyon SS Co (Source: [stg71])
I know nothing about this company. Flag was white with red bands along the upper and lower edges and a blue lozenge with the letter H in white.

Joe McMillan, 18 October 2001

Handy & Everett

  by Joe McMillan

Handy & Everett, New York (ca. 1850s)
Another 19th century sailing ship firm, from a painting of the "David Crockett," built in 1853 and one of the fastest of the California clippers. Flag was an attractive W-R-W horizontal triband with a large black disk overall on the center.

Joe McMillan, 18 October 2001

Harbeck & Co.

  by Joe McMillan

Harbeck & Co., New York (Source: PSMNY)
Another mid-19th century sailing ship firm. Another distinctive flag: yellow with a black saltire.

Joe McMillan, 18 October 2001

Hawaii Textron

  by Joe McMillan

Hawaii Textron (1956-59) (Source: [usn61])
This was a short-lived attempt by the Textron conglomerate to take on Matson Navigation's dominance of the Hawaii market just before Hawaiian statehood. In Rene de la Pedraja's words, "the promoters did not burden Textron with inconvenient historical facts such as the failure of the previous challengers." Textron quickly decided to cut its losses and go back to businesses it knew something about. The flag was a W-V-W horizontal triband with a large red H overall.

Joe McMillan, 18 October 2001

Hess Tankship, Hess Oil Co.

       by Joe McMillan

Hess Tankship, Perth Amboy, NJ. Source: US Navy's 1961 H.O.
Hess Oil Co. Source: Stewart & Styring (1963)
Leon Hess was probably the last of the self-made oil billionaires. The son of Russian Jewish immigrants, Hess started his empire during the Great Depression while still in his 20s buying residual oil from refineries (the leftovers after gasoline and other light products had been run off), loading it on his truck, and selling it to hotels and other businesses as heating oil. He eventually built up his empire to embrace exploration, refining, and retail sales and finally took his company public in 1962. He bought out the British company Amerada Petroleum in 1969, forming the company that today is Amerada Hess. Leon Hess died in 1999, but his company continues in business. Its tanker business includes six vessels with a total of 282,000 total deadweight tons. The Hess colors are green and yellow. The house flag in US Navy's 1961 H.O. was solid green with the name HESS in yellow. The 1963 version in Stewart & Styring (1963) was white with the name in green and two yellow brackets around the name (I can't describe it any better--see the image above. Neither of these matches the current logo, although the 1963 flag is generally similar.

Joe McMillan, 18 October 2001

S. Hicks & Co. Liverpool Line

  by Joe McMillan

S. Hicks & Co Liverpool Line, New York
Not much information on Hicks & Co. It was established in the 1820s and ran one of the early packet services between New York and Liverpool, but I don't know how long it lasted. The flag resembled that of the Black Ball Line but in different colors: a blue swallowtail with a red disk.
Source:  chart of "Private Signals of the Merchants of New York"

Joe McMillan, 19 October 2001

Hillcone SS Co.

  by Joe McMillan

Hillcone SS Co., San Francisco
A small line operating in the Pacific from at least the post-World War II period through the early 1960s. Flag red with a large white lozenge bearing a black H.
Source: US Navy's 1961 H.O.

Joe McMillan, 19 October 2001

Howland & Aspinwall

  by Joe McMillan

Howland & Aspinwall (New York) (1826-1895)
One of the dominant New York-based houses in China shipping in the mid-19th century. Both the Howland and Aspinwall families had been involved in seafaring enterprises in New England since before the American Revolution. The firm that would become Howland & Aspinwall was established as G. G. & S. Howland before 1826 to carry on trade with Cuba and later to England, Le Havre, and the Mediterranean. William H. Aspinwall, who was married to the sister of the Howland brothers, joined the firm in 1832, which led to the changing of the name and the expansion of its business to the Far East. Howland and Aspinwall pioneered the new clipper design technology in the 1840s and its China clippers, such as the "Rainbow" and the "Sea Witch," were famous for establishing speed records ("Sea Witch" 74 days, 14 hours from Hong Kong to New York in 1849). Howland and Aspinwall also established the Pacific Mail Steamship Company in 1848, to connect the Isthmus of Panama to San Francisco, fortuitously putting the firm in an ideal position to profit from the discovery of gold in California the following year. W. H. Aspinwall later established the Panama Railroad across the isthmus, with its Atlantic terminus at Aspinwall (now Colon). Aspinwall was also a major benefactor of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and a founding member of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The Howland and Aspinwall house flag was divided quarterly, blue and white, with a white cross overall, bordered in blue on the white quarters. Lloyd's Register of American Yachts for 1972 showed this flag still in use as the private signal (house flag) of Lloyd Aspinwall.
Source:  chart of "Private Signals of the Merchants of New York"  and multiple photos of paintings in various books.

Joe McMillan, 19 October 2001

Hubbard & Co.

  by Joe McMillan

Hubbard & Co., New York
Nothing on this mid-19th century New York firm except the very attractive flag, quarterly blue and red with a white cross overall, rather like that of the Dominican Republic.
Source:  chart of "Private Signals of the Merchants of New York"

Joe McMillan, 19 October 2001

Is there source enough to determine we're not just looking at an Dominican Republic Pilot Flag?

Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 20 October 2001
 
I think so. The source, which I've been citing as a chart of "Private Signals of the Merchants of New York" is a chart entitled Private Signals of the Merchants of New York, published ca 1850 in New York and reprinted in the Time-Life book "The Clipper Ships." I believe the compilers of the chart would have had
reasonably solid info on the flag used by Hubbard & Co and would not have taken a Dominican Republic pilot jack for the house flag.

Joe McMillan, 20 October 2001

Hudson River Navigation Co. (Night Line)

  by Joe McMillan

Hudson River Navigation Co. (Night Line) (1902-1939), New York
One of a number of steamboat lines running up and down the Hudson River between New York and the Albany area. Formed by merger of two earlier lines, the People's Line and the Citizens Line, in 1902. The term "Night Line" referred to the time of departures upstream--there was also a Day Line and an Evening Line. The flag was white with blue stripes at the top and bottom and an elaborate monogram of the company's initials on the center in red.
Source: www.steamship.net

Joe McMillan, 19 October 2001

Hudson Day Line

  by Joe McMillan

Hudson Day Line, New York (1863-1980)
Another riverboat line running from New York City to Albany during the daytime, as the name suggests. The flag was white with the name "Day Line" in blue and red upper and lower edges.
Source: National Geographic (1934)

Joe McMillan, 22 October 2001

Hudson River Line

  by Joe McMillan

Hudson River Line, New York
A burgee shaped flag with red upper and lower edges and the initials of the company. This may well be an earlier flag of the same company as the Day Line mentioned above.
Source: Reed (1896)

Joe McMillan, 22 October 2001

E. D. Hurlbut & Co.

E. D. Hurlbut & Co., New York
Hurlbut and Co., founded in 1825, was one of the most important coastwise shippers carrying raw cotton from ports on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico to mills in the northeast before the American Civil War. By 1846, Hurlbut had 13 vessels in service and a ship sailing every ten days. In the late 1850s the company expanded into the transatlantic market with service to Antwerp and Le Havre. When "Private Signals of the Merchants of New York"was printed in about 1850, Hurlbut was running three lines with different flags:

Mobile Line

  by Joe McMillan

The first and most important, to Mobile, Alabama, the second busiest cotton port after New Orleans. Flag a white swallowtail with a blue cross.
Source:  chart of "Private Signals of the Merchants of New York"

Joe McMillan, 22 October 2001

Apalachicola Line

  by Joe McMillan

To Apalachicola at the mouth of the Chattahoochee River on the Florida Gulf coast. Flag the reverse of the Mobile Line, blue swallowtail with a white cross.
Source:  chart of "Private Signals of the Merchants of New York"  

Joe McMillan, 22 October 2001

Pensacola Line

  by Joe McMillan

To Pensacola, Florida. Flag a white swallowtail with a red cross.
Source:  chart of "Private Signals of the Merchants of New York"

Joe McMillan, 22 October 2001