Commissioning Pennant

[Laners]

We can all sleep peacfully at night now .

[hptmurphy]

and to all those who doubted the fact it was flown....ha!

[Goldie fish]

Ok Goldie , your mission if you choose to accept it , is to get a close up photo of a commissioning pennant on the main mast of a Naval Service ship , but as mentioned in some other post here the pennant is usualy wrapped around the various antenas and looks like a damp rag .
I have gone trough every photo I have to try and find a pic of one visable to no avail .

Mission accomplished.

In the second photo you can barely make it out,compared to the signal flag flying below it(zero?)

[Sluggie]

Hedgehog. You are confusing the commisioning pennant with the Ship's colours,which are indeed hung in the church in Haulbowline when the ship is decommisioned.

[Laners]

The pennants get replaced every few months and are pretty in much in tatters at that time .
I don't recall ever seeing any military flags in the Base Church except during the anual retreat .

[hedgehog]

are old penants not hung in the Naval Church like our overseas and old unit penants

[Laners]

Page 123 of Tom McGinty's book , shows an overhead view of Fola and you can make out the Pennant .

[Laners]

Allthough the bronze anchors and cables and deck fittings would be worth a few quid.
We lost an anchor and a few cables of anchor cable in Kenmare River during a salmon patrol one year, a few days later we went alongside the Dutch salvage vessels in Bantry who where working on the Betleguise tanker wreck, the Dutch fellas asked about our missing anchor and we explained what happened and where, they wanted to head off and retrive the anchor and cable because they knew it was made of bronze and worth a bunch of money .

[Laners]

Hard to believe they had any scrap value considering they where wooden hulled ,and the cost to tow them to Spain would make a financial loss for whoever bought them .

[Sluggie]

As an ex-Mary...

Laners is correct to say that the Presidental flag is the same design as the Jack but on a blue field.

The Commodore's Pennant is a green burgee (swallow-tailed pennant) with a central five pointed star.

[hptmurphy]

Banba was moved out in 1984. Fola and Grainne both went to the breakers in spain.in 1988 with in a week of each other I've got photos of Fola going...on a rainy sunday morning....check out my page!

[Laners]

I know a man who has the decomissioning pennant from one of the sweepers. It is quite long.

I'll have to find that comissioning pennant.

Then it is probly a Paying Off Pennant which is the same desgine but much longer and usualy the same lenght of the ship, and if it is I dought that it is from one of the sweepers , they where laid up one by one and stripped for spares and
I think Banba and Fola went to a breakers yard for scrap and Grainne got towed to Spain to be converted into a floating restaurant.
A ship flies the Paying Off Pennant when arriving in port for the last time, and it has already been decided that the ship is being taken out of service , which was the case with L.E. Deridre , the sweepers on the other hand had a less dignified demise.

[Laners]

I thought there was also a Presedential Jack flag which was the same as the regular jack except that it has a blue background and flown under the same circumstances as the regular one .
Looks like we may need a Mary around here to help us out .

[hptmurphy]

On the Eithne looking at photos and from memory its flown just below the top pair of red mast head lights right at the top of the main mast. its almost invisible because its normally wrapped around something and rarely is seen flying freely...it is there believe me!

[hptmurphy]

the presidential jack is a green thingy and yes itwas flown for paddy hillerys jolly.Its flown at the same halyard as the flag officers...which is a gold star on a blue backround.