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Beside the Naval Ensign the civil ensign is one of the two original types of the national flag. In most countries there was originally no distinction between the flag for armed state ships ( Navy ) and civilian-owned, unarmed ships ( Merchant Marine ). Until today a lot of countries follow the practice of e.g. the USA and France in having only one flag for all or most purposes of the national flag. In several countries, however, this distinction has developed and was later adopted by other countries as well. Most notable for the elaborate flag system is the United Kingdom , that has (inter alia) the Red Ensign for civilian ships and the White Ensign for the Royal Navy . COUNTRIES HAVING SPECIFIC CIVIL ENSIGNS The civil ensigns that are different from the "general" national flag, can be grouped in five main categories. Red Ensign s after the British pattern These are red flags with, in most cases, the respective national flag in the Canton , patterned after the British Red Ensign . British Overseas Territories either fly the plain Red Ensign or a Red Ensign with the respective colonial arms in the fly. Civil ensign very different from the national flag Several countries have civil ensign that are very different from the national flag, for instance Malta and Luxembourg . Civil ensigns consisting of the national flag with an additional emblem Well-known examples are the Italian Civil Ensign showing the shield with the arms of the sea republics or the Polish Civil Ensign with the arms of Poland. Most of these emblems were added to distinguish the ensign from similar flags of other countries. Simplified national flags In several (mostly Latin American) countries there are two main versions of the flag, a simpler one (usually a striped flag) and a more elaborated one with the national arms. The simpler one is used as civil ensign (and in most cases also as civil flag), whereas the version with the arms is mainly used by the government and the military. Interestingly this is similar to the practice in Germany , Austria and Spain . Civil ensigns differing from the national flag in the proportions Several former British colonies use 1:2 as a proportion for their ensigns, whereas 3:5 is used for flags ashore. The countries of former Yugoslavia have it the other way round: the ensigns are 2:3, flags ashore are 1:2. Remarks |
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