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Bahamas

Commonwealth of the Bahamas, The Bahamas

(1:2) image by Brian Ellis, 11 December 2016

Official Name: Commonwealth of The Bahamas
Flag adopted: 10 July 1973
Coat of arms adopted: 7 December 1971
Designer: Hervis Bain

The Flag
Colour specifications
Subdivisions
Beach Safety flags

See also:

The Flag

Concerning Album 2000 [pay00] - National Flag. CSW/--- 1:2 - The construction details that are shown around the edges of the image are quite suspicious, unless I have made a mistake counting on fingers myself. The horizontals stripes are of equal width, there is no doubt about that, but vertical division is given as 2+4, i.e. the triangle height is supposed to be 1/3 of the length. Judging from all the pictures I have seen that is entirely wrong - the triangle seems to be of equal sides (i.e. the height is sqrt(3)/2).
Željko Heimer, 7 February 2001

I agree. It is a mistake.
Armand du Payrat, 16 February 2001

Bahamas flag colour shades from Album 2000 are:
Pantone --- CMYK
B 312c --- 100-0-15-0
Y 115c --- 0-10-80-0
Santiago Dotor, 26 February 2001

Smith (1975) [smi75b] reported: "The golden sands of the 700 Bahamian islands are reflected in the centre of the flag, while the aquamarine stripes bring to mind the various shades of ocean waters around those islands. The black triangle indicates the unity of the Bahamian people in their determination to develop the resources of both land and sea."
This seems a bit "embroidered" to me, and given the fact that the flag was fairly new in 1975 when the book was published (and probably brand new when he actually wrote it), I wonder whether Bahamians still see these aspirations in their flag?
Rob Raeside, 12 March 2001

In Album 2000 - Corr. Nr 1 [pay01] - Page BA 1.1 (National flag) - New specifications: ~2.6:~3.4 instead of 2:4 along the horizontal axis.
Ivan Sache, 8 October 2001

Cheryl C. Strachan wrote in her revised edition (2010) of "Flying the Pride" on page 18: "In 2006, the government of The Bahamas established that the official pantone matching colours (PMS) of the National Flag shall be 3145 Blue, 123 Yellow and Standard black."
Jos Poels, 1 April 2017

In the absence of any official statistics, I have looked at all the available official images I could find, and must agree that the flag should have an equilateral triangle.
This, I calculate, would give 10-10-10 at the hoist, and 13-17 across the top thus confirming the revised figures shown in the Album.
Christopher Southworth, 29 April 2009

images by Brian Ellis, 11 December 2016
[Click on images for full sizes]

I was working on some Bahamian flag graphics I made in Illustrator and wanted to see what Pantone Matching System (PMS) colors might be officially used. I found several sources listing PMS 312 (aquamarine) and PMS 115 (gold) but none from the Bahamian government until I happened upon a form "Permission for Use of National Symbols" on the Bahamian government website (https://forms.bahamas.gov.bs/dp_form.asp?fid=430) listing "The colour code required for the National Flag" as PMS 3145 (aquamarine), PMS 123 (gold) and PMS Standard Black. These are all quite a bit deeper than 99% of the Bahamian flag images out there.

I then found a book "Flying the Pride" (preview on Google Books: https://books.google.com/books?id=FBCwN6zfExwC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false) which outlines details of the protocol, construction and colors specs of the Bahamas' various flags and how they're to be used. This book states the colors PMS 3145, PMS 123 and PMS Standard Black were officially adopted by the Bahamian government back in 2006, 10 years ago! It also gives the red in the civil and naval ensigns as PMS 186 and the blue in the state (or "non-combatant") ensign as PMS 280. The crosses of the various ensigns appear to measure out at 1/8 of the hoist, narrower than most British-inspired ensigns. The national flag is also detailed as having the black triangle measuring out at 40% of the overall length of the flag instead of being equilateral (on a flag measuring 40 units long by 20 unit wide, the triangle extends 16 units into the flag instead of 17.331 as an equilateral triangle would).
Brian Ellis, 11 December 2016

Colour specifications

The protocol manual for the London 2012 Olympics (Flags and Anthems Manual London 2012 [loc12]) provides recommendations for national flag designs. Each NOC was sent an image of the flag, including the PMS shades, for their approval by LOCOG. Once this was obtained, LOCOG produced a 60 x 90 cm version of the flag for further approval. So, while these specs may not be the official, government, version of each flag, they are certainly what the NOC believed the flag to be.
For Bahamas: PMS 312 blue, 115 yellow and black. The vertical version is simply the flag turned through 90 degrees clockwise.
Ian Sumner, 10 October 2012

For the London 2012 Olympics, they have it as Pantones 312 for blue and 115 for yellow/gold. However, the Beijing 2008 manual has it as the correct government shades of 3145 and 123, respectively.
Zachary Harden, 12 December 2016

Other sources:
The Flag Manual - Beijing 2008 gives the official colors, PMS 3145 (aquamarine), PMS 123 (gold), and Black.

The Album des Pavillons 2000 [pay00] (Corr. No. 5.) gives colors in Pantone and CMYK colors, PMS colors are PMS 312C (blue) and PMS 115C (yellow), CMYK colors are 100-0-15-0 (blue) and 0-10-80-0 (yellow). (Red color is also given for other maritime flags – PMS 186C and CMYK 0-90-80-5.)

Flags and Anthems Manual London 2012 [loc12] gives the same colors as Album des Pavillons 2000 [pay00] (Corr. No. 5.): PMS 312 (blue), PMS 115 (yellow) and PMS Black.

The Album des Pavillons 2023 already specifies the colors of the flags in three color systems.
Blue: Pantone 280c, CMYK 100-90-34-22, RGB 1-33-105,
Blue: Pantone 3145c, CMYK 84-33-34-15, RGB 0-119-139,
Red: Pantone 186c, CMYK 14-100-79-4, RGB 200-16-46,
Yellow: Pantone 123 c, CMYK 0-24-86-0, RGB 255-199-44.
These are the official colors.

Vexilla Mundi gives official colors in Pantone system: PMS 3145, PMS 123 and PMS Black.

Wikipedia refers to FOTW-ws page and give color values in four systems:
Aquamarine: Pantone 3145, RGB: 0-169-206, Hex: #00778B and CMYK: 30-0-24-100
Yellow: Pantone 123, RGB: 255-199-44, Hex: #FFC72C and CMYK: 0-16-89-0
Black: Pantone: None, RGB: 0-0-0, Hex: #000000 and CMYK: 0-0-0-100.

Zoltan Horvath 16 April 2024

Subdivisions

Bahamas is divided to 21 districts. There are no known flags of those districts. The districts are:
- Acklins and Crooked Islands
- Bimini
- Cat Island
- Exuma
- Fresh Creek
- Freeport
- Governor's Harbour
- Green Turtle Cay
- Harbour Island
- High Rock
- Inagua
- Kemps Bay
- Long Island
- Mayaguana
- Marsh Harbour
- Nichollstown and Berry Islands
- New Providence
- Ragged Island
- Rock Sound
- Sandy Point
- San Salvador and Rum Cay
List based on Administrative divisions of the World.
Dov Gutterman, 25 October 2004

Beach Safety flags

The photo at http://www.flickr.com/ and accompanying caption would suggest that at least one beach in the Bahamas uses a safety flag system with four flags:
Yellow: Exercise caution
Yellow/Red diagonal: Strong surf; exercise extreme caution (in contrast to the use of such flags in AU/NZ/GB)
Red: Hazardous surf; no swimming
White with swimmer and red crossed circle: Beach closed, no access.
The extent of the swimming area is marked by buoys, not flags.
Jonathan Dixon, 18 September 2010