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Hudson’s Bay Company Flag
by John MacFarlane 2017
Hudson’s Bay Company Flag (Photo from the John MacFarlane collection.)
The flag was officially in use by a special warrant on July 21, 1682, when Prince Rupert of the Rhine granted permission to the company to use the Red Ensign. Prior to 1869 the flag was used as both the flag of Rupert’s Land and the Hudson’s Bay Company. After Rupert’s Land was purchased by the government of Canada, the flag continued as the flag of the HBC and the new North–West Territories. After 1950, the flag was used by the HBC.
Hudson’s Bay Company Flag flying on the Anna Olga. (Photo from the Brabant collection.)
The current company flag is based on the Governor’s Standard bearing the company’s coat of arms (in gold on a white background), in use since 1779.
Hudson’s Bay Company Flag on an unidentified trading schooner, probably in the Eastern Arctic. (Photo from the Brabant collection.)
To quote from this article please cite:
MacFarlane, John M. (2017) Hudson’s Bay Company Flag. Nauticapedia.ca 2017. http://nauticapedia.ca/Articles/HBC_Flag.php
Site News: December 03, 2024
The vessel database has been updated and is now holding 94,691 vessel histories (with 16,234 images and 13,917 records of ship wrecks and marine disasters).
Vessel records are currently being reviewed and updated with more than 45,000 processed so far this year (2024).
The mariner and naval biography database has also been updated and now contains 58,599 entries (with 3996 images).
Thanks to Ray Warren who is beginning a long process of filling gaps in the photo record of vessel histories in the database. Ray has been documenting the ships of Vancouver Harbour for more than 60 years.
Thanks to contributor Mike Rydqvist McCammon for the hundreds of photos he has contributed to illustrate British Columbia’s floating heritage.
My very special thanks to our volunteer IT adviser, John Eyre, who (since 2021) has modernized, simplified and improved the update process for the databases into semi–automated processes. His participation has been vital to keeping the Nauticapedia available to our netizens.