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United Kingdom: HMS Trincomalee

image by Clay Moss, 30 January 2011

Description of the flag

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Description of the flag

HMS Trincomalee is the oldest ship afloat in the United Kingdom. (Possibly the second oldest in the world after USS Constitution.) She was built in Bombay as a 38 gun frigate in 1817 and is now preserved in Hartlepool (north-east England) as the central attraction in the maritime heritage area. See website at http://www.hms-trincomalee.co.uk/index.php. She was granted a special Blue Ensign, first hoisted on 14 December 2005, by Ministry of Defence warrant of 20 September 2005. The badge designed by Commander Bruce Nicolls OBE, RN, is based on the seal of the HMS Trincomalee Trust. It is not reversed on the other side of the ensign, and the ship "sails" towards the fly on the obverse side, and towards the hoist on the reverse side.

Trincomalee was to have been scraped in 1897 but was bought by W. Cobb to replace the training ship Foudroyant, which had just been wrecked. After conversion she was re-named Foudroyant in 1902 and served as a training ship until 1986. Between 1950 and 1986 she flew the Blue Ensign of T.S.Foudroyant, she flew the Blue Ensign of Foudroyant. Restoration to her present condition was carried out by the Foudroyant Trust, which became the HMS Trincomalee Trust in July 1992.
David Prothero, 30 January 2011, 1 February 2011