Last modified: 2024-08-17 by ian macdonald
Keywords: state ensign | civil ensign | coast guard ensign | key (red) | anchor (red) | star: 5 points (fimbriated) | star: 5 points (white) | dodo | stella clavisque maris indici | sambur deer | deer (red and white) |
Links: FOTW homepage |
search |
disclaimer and copyright |
write us |
mirrors
See also:
The Merchant Shipping Bill of Mauritius of 2006 is available online as a
PDF
file. Upon a quick look though it, it seems that it defines no other
“national colours” then the flag of Mauritius.
It may be that this made the civil and
state enisgns of Mauritius obsolete? The Bill
mentions the previous 1986 Act amended in 1992 — maybe they would have more
data on, in that case, previous red and blue ensigns. There is also Merchant
Shipping Act of 3 August 2007 which is basically the same (would the 2006 be a
proposal for that 2007 act?)
Željko Heimer, 06 Mar 2010
Mauritius’ main flag maker still sells both the Mauritius
red ensign and the Mauritius blue ensign. At this point,
all that I know is that the standard size for the red ensign is
3×4½ ft while the blue ensign is 3×6 ft.
They are 680.00 Mauritius rupees each or about US$22.00.
Clay Moss, 08 Mar 2010
image by Zoltan Horvath, 10 July 2024
The Album 2000 [pay00] says:
3. Civil Ensign.Blue ensign, based on British model, with the national flag in canton and coat of arms (without the white disk) in fly.1:2
Porter Brothers flag makers of Liverpool (now out of business) told
me that in the early 1980s they produced a batch of
merchant ensigns to be sent to Mauritius; if
they made up any government ensigns, I didn’t see them.
Clay Moss, 04 March 2010
Mauritius’ main flag maker still sells the Mauritius blue ensign. At this
point, all that I know is that the standard size for the blue ensign is
3×6 ft. They are 680.00 Mauritius rupees each or about US$22.00.
Clay Moss, 08 March 2010
I haven’t found any pictures of real using of government ensign, it’s
probably not used currently.
Zoltan Horvath, 10 July 2024
image by Clay Moss, 15 June 2010
Mauritius’ main flag maker still sells the Mauritius red ensign. At
this point, all that I know is that the standard size for the red ensign is
3×4½ ft. They are 680.00 Mauritius rupees each or about
US$22.00.
Clay Moss, 08 March 2010
Bruce Berry visited the main flag selling establishment in Port Louis, Mauritius, where he purchased a couple of Mauritian red ensigns and kindly sent me one of them. The badge has been embellished from the traditional version by having the golden sprigs of (what?) added and the letters "RM" which we assume to stand for "Republic of Mauritius". The image above shows pretty much as the ensign is made up. It measures 3×4.5 ft. The disk is 24 in in diameter, offset low in the fly half and all of the stuff inside is fairly close to what you see here. The Mauritius flag canton is ⅖ as wide as the whole ensign and in length ⁵⁄12 the length of the ensign. The whole ensign is cotton broad cloth.
The store had many in stock, and apparently the ensign is still regularly used. Bruce has visited the Mauritius Bureau of Standards among other places and has so far had no luck on getting any information on new proportions, rules of usage etc. for either the Mauritius red or Mauritius blue ensign. So, we don’t know if the new badge for the red ensign is an official one or if someone simply exercised a bit of artistic license in drawing this up.
Clay Moss, 15 June 2010
This appears to show the Presidential
variant of the national arms, and I wonder if these have replaced the
1906 model for general use?
Christopher Southworth, 16 June 2010
image by Clay Moss, 11 Dec 2006
The Album 2000 [pay00] says:
3. Civil Ensign.Red ensign, based on British model, with the national flag in canton and coat of arms on a white disk in fly.1:2
Does anyone know if the current red ensign is actually utilized by the
Mauritian merchant fleet? I have a colleague who lives in Mauritius who tells
me that he has never seen a current red ensign. He says that the
Mauritius national flag serves as the ensign at sea as
well. Now, my colleague is not all that observant, so he may not be on
target.
Clay Moss, 11 Dec 2006
I think that it’s official but has fallen into disuse. Porter
Brothers flag makers of Liverpool (now out of business) told me that in the
early 1980’s they produced a batch to be sent to Mauritius but that
they never received another order afterwards.
Clay Moss, 04 Mar 2010
Porter Brothers was making the disk
⁴⁄9: The prototype sample they
showed me was a 3×6 ft red ensign with a 16″ disk. I think
(the batch) that they sent to Mauritius consisted of 4½×9 footers
with 24″ badges, 3×6 footers with 16″ badges and 27×54
inch ensigns with 12″ badges.
Clay Moss, 04 Mar 2010
image by Clay Moss, 19 March 2010
This design is based on Album 2000
[pay00], where the disk shown is rather large.
The same drawing appears in the Corr. 4 of the Album
[cor04].
Željko Heimer, 06 March 2010
I am not aware if there is a regulation regarding the size of the disk.
In the Album 2000 [pay00] it’s
certainly bigger than traditional British disk
of ⁴⁄9ths hoist (which also the
Brits dropped lately).
Željko Heimer, 14 June 2002
The Merchant Shipping Act 2007 doesn’t mention any ensign, only national
flag.
https://dpp.govmu.org/
I haven’t found any pictures of real using of
civil ensign, it’s probably not used currently.
Zoltan Horvath, 10 July 2024
