Argentine Navy: historical naval rank flags (1894-1904)

Last modified: 2021-12-24 by rob raeside
Keywords: star: 6 points (white) | stars: 3 | stars: 2 | sun | president | admiral | vice-admiral | rear admiral |
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• About the 1894-1904 rank flags
  • President
  • Ministers of State
  • Minister of Navy
  • Chief of the Naval Staff
  • Undersecretary of the Navy
  • Admiral
  • Vice-Admiral
  • Rear Admiral
  • Flag Officers Not in Command
  • Captain (Adjutant-General)
  • Captain in Command
  • Senior Naval Officer

• Argentine historical naval flags
• Argentine Navy
• Argentina

About the 1894-1904 rank flags

These Argentine rank flags are based on the book Flags of Maritime Nations [u9s99a].
Miles Li, 27 Dec 2007

Flags of Maritime Nations [u9s99a] took these designs from the Argentine book Código Nacional de Señales (National Code of Signals) written by Eduardo Muscari and published by the Argentine Navy in 1894. These ranks were used until 1904 when a new reglament was established.
Francisco Gregoric, 27 Jan 2015

President

Same as today, but without the stars.
Miles Li, 27 Dec 2007

Ministers of State

Minister of Navy

Captioned "Minister of Marine" in [u9s99a].
Miles Li, 27 Dec 2007

Chief of the Naval Staff

Captioned "Major-General of Marine" in [u9s99a] (no doubt a literal translation from Spanish "Jefe del Estado-Mayor de la Marina").
Miles Li, 27 Dec 2007

Undersecretary of the Navy

Captioned "Undersecretary of Marine" in [u9s99a].
Miles Li, 27 Dec 2007

Admiral

Admiral had three stars. Note that [u9s99a] labelled [wrongly] the three-star flag as Vice Admiral.
Miles Li, 28 Dec 2007

Vice Admiral

Vice Admiral had two stars. Note that [u9s99a] labelled [wrongly] the two-star flag as Rear Admiral.

Jane's Fighting Ships pre-WWI showed the two-star flag as Vice Admiral.
Miles Li, 28 Dec 2007

A variant can be seen at http://l7.alamy.com/zooms/c35c8fd3158e4dcc8bb7128a20d95319/argentina-flags-jack-admiral-vice-admiral-with-subordinate-command-gkf224.jpg, source: http://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-argentina-flags-jack-admiral-vice-admiral-with-subordinate-command-115271580.html) of the stars, being five-pointed instead (and that also applies to the rest of Rank Flags, in a publication dated 1916).

To my recollection, Argentina has always used the five-pointed stars to depict ranks and Rank Flags (as seen on the the official website, source: http://www.ara.mil.ar) with the respective flag for "Jefe del Estado Mayor de la Armada" (Navy Chieff of Staff) with four five-pointed stars in a navy blue background.
Esteban Rivera, 9 January 2017

Rear Admiral

Rear Admiral had one star. Note that [u9s99a] labelled [wrongly] the one-star flag as Commodore. This was probably a mistake by the US Navy which was unfamiliar with the star-rank system of Argentina.

Jane's Fighting Ships pre-WWI showed the one-star flag as Rear Admiral.
Miles Li, 28 Dec 2007

Flag Officers Not in Command

Flag Officers Not in Command flew the naval jack as their rank flag.
Miles Li, 28 Dec 2007

Captain (Adjutant-General)

Captain in Command

Senior Naval Officer