![[Unidentified Greek ensign, 1820]](../misc/gr~ufe20.gif)
Last modified: 2007-02-17 by ivan sache
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Unidentified Greek flag - Scanned image by John Harland, 9 August 2000
The French etcher Jean-Jérôme Baubean published two
books of maritime etchings c. 1810-1820.
Among 200 images, two show Greek merchant vessels. They fly an ensign
with a cross reaching the ensign edges. Each quarter includes a
smaller cross. Therefore, the ensign looks like the
Jerusalem ensign, the
Malta Grand Master's ensign, or a
Vatican's banner. Anyway, the represented
ensign does not show the crosses with a T ending the arms.
The caption of the plate is: Corvette marchande grecque, venant
de mouillir, which translates as: "Greek merchant corvette lying
at anchor".
At that time, Greek was under Ottoman
rule, and the crosses with their Christian symbolic look weird.
John Harland, 9 August 2000
An analogous flag is labelled "flag of Jerusalem" in J.Siebmacher's Flaggenbuch (Nurnberg, 1878).
Victor Lomantsov, 19 August 2000
If the flag was white and the crosses red, I believe that this flag came from the Franciscan Order. It looks like the flag of the Custody of the Franciscan Order in Levant and Holy Land.
Jaume Ollé, 26 August 2000
We also have to remember that the Greeks' fight for independence became very popular among the Romantic cenacles in Western Europe (especially after Lord Byron's death in Missolonghi in 1824 and the monumental painting of Delacroix entitled Scènes de maasacre à Scio, showed to the Salon in Paris in 1824). It is possible that an enthusiastic artist did some false interpretation of a reported ensign.
Ivan Sache, 26 August 2000
![[Red and white Greek flag]](../images/g/gr!1822.gif)
Red and white Greek flag - Image by Santiago Dotor, 14 March 2003
Quoting Carr [car 61]:
The first national flag of Greece, adopted in 1822, was red with a white cross, and it is generally believed that the change to light blue and white was made when Otto of Bavaria (the son of Louis I) became King of Greece in 1832, light blue and white being the colours of his family.
There is some reason to believe, however, that light blue and white were used in the wars against Turkey some time before the Bavarian prince ascended the throne.
Santiago Dotor, 14 March 2003
It is a fact that the first King of Greece, Otto, was Bavarian and because the Bavarian colours were blue and white, this has lead to an incorrect conclusion by some that the origin of the Greek colours are to be found here. The Greek colours were already determined in 1822, ten years before before the Bavarian Prince ascended the Greek throne.
Yannis Natsinas & Andre van de Loo, 14 March 2003
![[Greek national flag, 1862?]](../images/g/gr_gr62.gif)
![[Greek merchant flag, 1862?]](../images/g/gr_mer62.gif)
Greek flags shown by Colton - Images by Ivan Sache, 10 March 2001
Left, national flag; right, merchant flag
Ivan Sache, 10 March 2001
