Grand Duchy of Finland

The Grand Duchy of Finland was ceded to Russia in 1809 after Sweden lost the War of Third Coalition. It became an autonomous territory in union with the tsar, but in the period of 1899 to 1917 the Grand Duchy suffered under the Russification policies. In 1917 Finland proclaimed independence from Russia and with aid from the Germany it became independent after a civil war (1917-19).

The blue ensign with the Russian tricolour in the canton. The flag was initially prescribed but was relatively soon revoked and the normal Russian merchant ensign was to be used by Finnish ships as well. The Finnish merchant fleet was the main part of the Russian merchant navy anyway (and the Russian merchant ensign was, apparently, often referred as Finnish by the seamen of the time).

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The white flag with blue slightly off-set cross throughout and the Yacht Club badge in the canton.¹ The badge consists of the traditional coat of arms of the province of Nyland (Uusimaa) within a wreath of (oak?) leaves and a blue ribbon. The coat of arms  is azure boat or between two wavy bars argent and is topped with a baronial coronet.

A variant of the NYC flag is shown. This one is as previous but with the badge in the hoist lower quarter, while the canton is occupied with the Russian tricolour.

This is the usual pattern of the Russian yacht club ensigns of the time. The NYC flag is considered to be the root of the current Finnish national flag, though they way of adoption was not straight and simple. In any case, the NYC ensign was very popular on private boats of the period.

(from sewn examples in Turku Provincial Museum and Satakunta Museum)

A Red flag with blue fimbriated yellow cross.

This is different from the proposals shown currently on FOTW, this real sewn flags has regular, not Scandinavian, crosses.

Date: 1.6.1863 (national flag)

Yellow and red horizontal bicolour.

Red flag with thin yellow cross (not Scandinavian).²

White triangular pennant with rounded tip, with a blue cross and a black compass rose in the canton.

This and the following flags are Russian in layout - but maybe they were being used in Finland only? In any case, the caption says Finnish Department of Pilots and Customs.

A white flag with a blue cross and a black compass rose in the canton.

Triangular swallow-tailed pennant with a white panel containing a black compass rose and the tricolour white-blue-red fly.

Triangular swallow-tailed pennant with a blue panel containing two white caduceus in saltire and the tricolour white-blue-red fly.

A blue flag with the Russian tricolour in canton and two white caduceus in saltire. It is not clear from the caption whether this was the ensign used on customs vessels, or if it was a flag used on land, or something else.

The Russian tricolour bordered all around with a white border of width equal to the width of each of the tricolour stripes. This was used as the jack on the pilot boats, apparently, but it is not clear what was used as the ensign - the usual Russian merchant ensign of the time, I guess (the tricolour I believe).

Source: article by Bergroth in the proceedings of the 20th International Congress of Vexillology, Stockholm
Željko Heimer, 8-9 October, 2004

Footnotes:

1. This was the flag which could be the original inspiration to the flag which became the Finnish national flag in 1918.

2. Red and yellow are the tinctures of the Finnish state arms. This should be the reason for these colours in these flags.
Elias Granqvist, 11 October 2004