ZFC3084 United States // 13 Star /Coast Guard Commissioning Pennant
The Act of March 2, 1799, known as the Customs Administration Act authorized that "the cutters and boats employed in the service of the revenue shall be distinguished from other vessels by "an ensign and pendant, with such marks thereon as shall be prescribed and directed by the President of the United States."
The job of designing the distinguishing ensign eventually fell upon Oliver Wolcott, who had replaced Alexander Hamilton as Secretary of the Treasury in 1795. On June 1, 1799, Wolcott submitted his design to President John Adams for approval. Wolcotts proposal featured an ensign of sixteen vertical stripes, alternating red and white, representing the number of states that had joined the Union by 1799. In suggesting a correspondence of stripes and states, Wolcott was following the lead of Congress, which in 1794 had changed the national flag to fifteen stars and fifteen stripes, implying an adjustment at the entry of each new state. Wolcott, therefore, raised the number of stripes to sixteen, and dramatically turned their arrangement ninety degrees to differentiate the new revenue cutter ensign from the U.S. Flag.
This ensign was ultimately authorized August 1, 1799, when Secretary of the Treasury, Oliver Wolcott, issued an order announcing that in pursuance of authority from the President, the distinguishing ensign and pennant would consist of, "16 perpendicular stripes, alternate red and white, the union of the ensign to be the arms of the United States in a dark blue on a white field."
It is assumed that the Commission Pennant, which like the ensign reflected the 16 states of the Union, was adopted at the same time. The commission pennant is the normal characteristic emblem of a warship. Also called a commissioning, masthead, long, narrow, or coachwhip pennant, the use of such a mark has long been limited by international custom to public vessels of sovereign states.
England restricted the use of these pennants exclusively to the King's ships in 1674, and today, for most navies, the narrow pennant serves as the chief "distinctive mark" called for in article 8 of the 1958 Convention on the High Seas to distinguish warships from other vessels.
The commission pennant is the distinctive mark of a Coast Guard cutter in commission, that is, a vessel under the command of a commissioned officer or a warrant officer. Its hoisting is the central event in the commissioning of a new ship and from that moment until the vessel is decommissioned the pennant is flown day and night from the aftermost masthead, unless the cutter is flying an admiral's flag or a command pennant.
In the U.S. Coast Guard, following Royal Navy traditions, the commission pennant is flown day and night at the loftiest point on the aftermost mast, from the moment the ship is put into commission until the moment it is taken out of commission. At one time, masthead pennants were extremely long.
The commission pennant is also used to indicate the presence of a commanding officer in a boat and is otherwise used for all the same purposes served by its US Navy equivalent.
Beginning before the Civil War, cutters of the Revenue Marine used a commission pennant that was white with 13 blue stars at the hoist, with red and white vertical stripes taking up the fly. Some time after the war, it switched to one that was similar to that used by the Navy at the time--with 13 white stars on blue at the hoist--but with the tail still striped vertically rather than, as for the Navy, simply divided red over white. By 1938, however, the Coast Guard, the successor of the Revenue Marine and Revenue Cutter Service, had revived the old antebellum pennant, which remains in use today.
This commission pennant dates from the 1938 to 1953 period and is likely from WWII.
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