Last modified: 2021-05-29 by rob raeside
Keywords: mission to seafarers | seamen | seafarers | mission |
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The new flag of the Mission to Seafarers [seen at the cathedral in Sydney,
Australia] is similar to the old flag: ultramarine blue, with a stylized flying
angel in white facing the fly at the centre, and with the words 'The Mission'
and 'To Seafarers' in capital letters in white forming two arcs, one above the
angel and one below.
Miles Li, 21 October 2001
I have based the flag on the illustration in The Book of Flags by Campbell &
Evans (1950).
André Coutanche, 10 June 2001
The current issue of "Mariners' Mirror" (February 2007) contains an article
about religious organizations that ministered to British sailors in
Mediterranean ports in the 19th and 20th centuries. It includes a brief
discussion of the "Bethel flag" that fills in a few details in addition to what
we have on the Dictionary of Vexillology:
"Although various ad hoc flag signals to publicize services on ships were in
use, it was the designing and adoption of the Bethel flag at this time [ca.
1816?] which gave the movement, and subsequent societies, a visible symbol and
title. . . Soon the presentation of the flag to a Christian master or to a
Bethel Society, and its hoisting in a new port of call, became the way in which
the movement was identified."
The article contains an illustration of the flag, and also the following
description:
"The word 'Bethel' (House of God) in white was blazoned across a blue ground,
with a star above and a dove with olive branch below."
The illustration shows the flag with proportions of about 1:2, with the word
"BETHEL" vertically centered in all-capital serif, about 1/3 the height of the
flag. The star is in the upper hoist corner, above the "B",and while the dove
with the branch is in the lower hoist corner, under the "BE." The "star"
actually looks more like a sun; it is a torus with a dot in the center, and a
large number of thin, straight rays radiating from it. The dove is in flight,
fairly stylized and facing toward the fly.
The article also mentions and illustrates the flag of the Missions to Seaman,
which was adopted in 1857 and is referred to as the "Flying Angel" flag. It is
more-or- less square, with a fairly detailed image of an flying angel holding an
open book facing toward the fly, with the words "The Missions" above and "To
Seamen" below. The angel is in dark outline on a light background; the lettering
is all-capital sans-serif dark outline. The illustration is black-and-white and
the article does not mention the colors.
Peter Ansoff, 26 February 2007