Uncommon US Flags #1: US Yacht Ensign
August is a month with no official flag observances in the United States. In light of that, I thought I would write a series on various US Flags, banners, standards, pennants, and such to fill up the month. I will also do research on other nations to expand this beyond a USA series, since LGF holds international appeal.
A “yacht ensign” is a flag adopted by many nations to distinguish pleasure craft from merchant vessels. Merchant vessels in most nations fly a “civil ensign” (the most famous of which is the United Kingdom’s Red Ensign).
As such, the flag pictured above is called the US Yacht Ensign.
“Yacht” in US law refers to a different class of ship or boat than the common usage of the word. In US maritime law of the XIX and XX Centuries, a yacht was a pleasure craft eligible to be registered as a US vessel of at least thirty-five long tons (later reduced to twenty long tons). The Yacht Ensign was never used on ships of the US Government (mostly war vessels) or merchant vessels.
In the days of wooden sailing ships, it was frequently difficult to tell a warship from a large pleasure craft or merchant vessel. The usual method in the days of sail was that warships would fly giant-size flags from the mast (the paintings showing warships of various nations accurately depicted the size of the ensigns used in those days). The largest ensign used by the US Navy was in 1870 (19 by 36 feet—5.8 by 11 metres).
In the United States, pleasure craft are not subject to customs inspection if they don’t leave US waters. As such, it was a waste of time for revenue cutters to approach yachts as they went from port to port along the coasts.
The US Congress, in an effort to reduce wasting time of customs inspectors, passed the Federal Yacht Ensign Act of 1848. This act designated the flag to be a “signal” (a flag hoisted on the yardarm), and its design to be determined by the US Navy.
In 1849, the New York Yacht Club submitted the design above for consideration, which the US Navy accepted. Subsequently, the US Treasury Department implemented a regulation for the US Customs Service to recognise the Navy signal as the official Yacht Ensign of the United States.
All formally registered yachts were legally required to fly this ensign in statute 46 USC 109 (Foreign Commerce and Trade).
Shortly after the Yacht Ensign was mandated, other pleasure craft owners who were not required to display it (such as small boats and watercraft registered in states), did so anyway as a matter of pride. A subsequent ruling by the Secretary of the Navy determined that the Yacht Ensign could be flown aboard any pleasure craft not subject to customs inspection.
The Yacht Ensign is not valid as a flag of “national character” as defined in international maritime law, thus all US pleasure craft are required to fly the National Ensign (the US Flag) in international waters or a foreign nation.
In 1980, the Vessel Documentation Act (Public Law 96-594) was passed, removing the now very-rare legal category of “yacht” and treats all pleasure craft the same, whether registered by the United States or a state.
With the long tradition of pleasure craft flying the Yacht Ensign, the flag is still flown from many pleasure craft today. The states of Washington, Arkansas, and Maryland subsequently adopted the Yacht Ensign as official for pleasure craft to fly, though all three states require the National Ensign must be flown if the vessel enters international waters.