zachary harden
Keywords: latvia | swallowtail |
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Last modified: 2023-06-03 by zachary harden
Keywords: latvia | swallowtail |
Links: FOTW homepage |
search |
disclaimer and copyright |
write us |
mirrors
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Neubecker showes a whole lot of flags to but some seem to be
obsolete today. I have already commented on most of the flags
that apear in Album 2000, therefore I'll concentrate on other
flags, shown in Flaggenbuch (that's [neu92])
but not in Album (that's [pay00]).
Željko Heimer, 14 April 2002
image
by Željko Heimer, 14 April 2002
10. Trawlerdivision Commander (39:136) - Swallow-tailed
pennant, hoist as the naval ensign, fly blue, the indentation
nearly reaching the fly end of the ensign. As far as I could
found, there is no explanation what the Trawler Division was,
obviously some kind of (prominent?) naval unit. I presume that
the passage of time made this flag obsolete and hardly to be used
nowdays (ie. after Latvia regained independence).
Željko Heimer, 14 April 2002
image
by Željko Heimer, 14 April 2002
11. Submarine Division Commander (39:136) - As previous, but
the fly part is (Latvian) red. I somehow doubt that Latvia today
has any U-Boot Division, but if they had, the flag might be
reintroduced?
Željko Heimer, 14 April 2002
![[Latvian Other Minister]](../images/l/lv-otm.gif)
image
by Željko Heimer, 14 April 2002
15. Deputy Prime-Minister, other Minister, Deputy Minister,
State Controller (2:3) - White flag with horizontal red-white-red
stripe in the middle, divided with a rectangular white pannel
containing the CoA. The width of the stripe is 1/3 of hoist, the
stripe is RWR 2:1:2 as usual for Latvian national colours, and
length of the pannel is 205/330 (i.e. 41/66) of the hoist size.
One would need to go around the ministries to find out if this is
used today. Or maybe this is intended for use by navy, in which
case one would need to find it in some naval regulation, and
otherwise it would be quite unknown.
Željko Heimer, 14 April 2002
![[Latvian Envoy]](../images/l/lv-env.gif)
image
by Željko Heimer, 14 April 2002
16. Ambassador (1:2) - Gesandten in German, which is some
diplomatic title, but maybe it's not full ambassador, Calvin
Paige Herring calls it "envoy". Latvian national
flag with white canton containing the coat of arms. Length of the
canton here is 2/5 of the flag length (i.e. 4/5 of hoist) unlike
all other similarly patterned flags. Similar remark as above
could be made, but OTOH, this and next flag migh actually be used
by diplomatic personnel also today?
Željko Heimer, 14 April 2002
Ambassador would be "Botschaft" in German. I would
consider Ambassador as a higher position, since there is usually
only one Ambassador of country X in country Y.
"Gesandten" litterally means "those who are
sent", coming from the verb "senden - sandte -
gesandt". The French litteral translation is
"Envoyé", which probably gave the English word
"Envoy".
Ivan Sache, 15 April 2002
Ivan is on the right track, but it's not a matter of how many
are sent but of what rank. The relative precedence among
ambassadors, envoys, ministers, and chargés d'affaires was
established by the Congress of Vienna in 1815.
Ambassador (actually Botschafter; Botschaft means embassy) is the
highest rank of diplomatic representative. The full title
in English is ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary; in
German ausserordentlicher bevollmachtiger Botschafter; in French
ambassadeur extraordinaire et plénipotentiaire.
The next rank down is envoy extraordinary and minister
plenipotentiary, German ausserordentlicher Gesandter und
bevollmachtiger Minister, French envoyé extraordinaire et
ministre plénipotentiaire. There are very few of these
around any more. EE&MP used to be the title of the head
of a diplomatic mission to a country considered to be of lesser
importance. Since no one wants to say any more that any
country is of secondary stature, almost all diplomatic missions
are now headed by ambassadors, unless some kind of breach of
relations or temporary gap in assignments dictates
otherwise. But in 1939, a country like Germany would have
had many of its diplomatic missions headed by EE&MPs
(Gesandten), and I would think that it is such envoys--not all
diplomatic officers--who would use the flag described.
Joe McMillan, 15 April 2002
However, this leaves us with a weird thing - Latvia had
special flags for two lower ranks of diplomatic heads of missions
(envoy and consul, to call them shortly), but no flag for the
highest ranking diplomatic official - ambassador. Or maybe,
ambassadors were entitled to the same flag that was for the
"other ministers"? Isn't the ambassadors rank equal to
a minister, or something like that?
Željko Heimer, 15 April 2002
Without having the FB to look at, I would think these
ministers are cabinet ministers, not diplomatic ministers.
I doubt that ambassadors would be lumped in with members of the
cabinet.
My guess (which could presumably be verified from historic
documents) is that as a small country Latvia probably did not
have any ambassadors. Diplomatic relations normally operate
on the basis of reciprocity, and since most (if not all)
countries before WWII would send only an envoy or a minister to
Riga, Latvia may well have sent only envoys and not ambassadors
to other countries. The heads of the Latvian diplomatic
missions in Washington and Berlin in 1940 were all designated
envoys E∓ it would not surprise me if the same were true
of the Latvian chiefs of mission in other capitals. If you
find a reference to a Latvian or other "legation," it
is a signal that the chief of mission was not an ambassador.
Joe McMillan, 16 April 2002
As is described in Latvia page:
Sutna karogs = ambassadors (not envoys) flag.
Sutnis means envoy and ambassador. In modern terminology sutnis
is replaced with vestnieks (but it also means both envoy and
ambassador)
Gvido Pētersons, 17 April 2002
![[Latvian Consul]](../images/l/lv-cons.gif)
image
by Željko Heimer, 14 April 2002
17. Consul (1:2) - Latvian national flag with the wite canton
containing the shield of the coat of arms. The length of the
canton is 1/3 of flag length, same as in all other such flags
except the previous one. The CoA shown here is not the lesser
coat of arms, since that would need to have three stars above the
shield.
Željko Heimer, 14 April 2002
![[Latvian Post]](../images/l/lv-pst.gif)
image
by Željko Heimer, 14 April 2002
19. Post (1:2) - The national flag with golden posthorn in
white canton. There are no report of usage of this flag in modern
era, and since the postal service is much different nowdays then
before WWII, it may well be that the flag is today obsolete
indeed.
Željko Heimer, 14 April 2002
![[Latvian Hydrographic Service]](../images/l/lv-hyd.gif)
image
by Željko Heimer, 14 April 2002
21. Hydrographic Service (1:2) - The national flag with blue
compass rose in white canton. No modern reports of the usage of
this flag reached us, but if the hydrographic service ever gain
some boats (I presume there are none currently) it would be very
probably that they would proudly use this flag.
Željko Heimer, 14 April 2002
![[Latvian Yacht Ensign]](../images/l/lv-yct.gif)
image
by Željko Heimer, 14 April 2002
22. Latvian Sailing Association (2:3) - The national flag with
white disk in the middle containing the LSA emblem, the
shield of the national coat of arms above two blue anchors in
saltire and golden trident set vertically. If I have understood
it rightly, this flag was the flag of the association, and not an
ensign to be used on vessels (except maybe as a burgee).
Željko Heimer, 14 April 2002
![[Latvian Yacht Club]](../images/l/lv-ycb.gif)
image
by Željko Heimer, 14 April 2002
23. Yacht Clubs, members of the Sailing Association, (badge of
the club in the middle, example here "Jachtclub von
Lettland"). This could be used when sailing abroad instead
of the national ensign. (This all is more or less freely
translated caption from Flaggenbuch).
I have, naturally, a number of questions here:
- were there YCs that were not members of LSA?
- was there a list (register) of this YCs, and if so were the
emblems registered too?
- is this used today in any form?
- is it used in (more or less) the same manner? and if so:
- are there YCs not entitiled to it?
- is there a list of YCs entitled to it (and tehir emblems)?
- is it used also inland?
I used the emblem drawn by Calvin Paige.
Željko Heimer, 14 April 2002
![[Latvian Pilot flag]](../images/l/lv-plt.gif)
image
by Željko Heimer, 14 April 2002
24. Pilot Flag (9:14) - Used instead of the international
signal to call a pilot. The national flag (size 5x10) surrounded
with white border (of 2 units on all sides). This is probably as
obsolete as all other such flags world-wide.
Željko Heimer, 14 April 2002
