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Socialist Yugoslavia: Signals for non-military ships

Legislation
Administrative signal
Privileged navigation signal
Postal signal
River Police pennanr

See also:

Socialist Yugoslavia

Legislation

In 1950 were issued the Rules on displaying and hoisting of the flag of the merchant marine and the ships of inland navigation (Pravilnik o isticanju i vijanju zastave trgovačke mornarice i brodarstva unutrašnje plovidbe FNRJ i znakova na brodovima trgovačke mornarice i brodarstva unutrašnje plovidbe), published in Službeni list FNRJ, 45/50 and 20/51 (amendment). It is of little doubt that this rules were complementing the 1950 Law on the establishemnt of the merchant ensign. The rules were amended once again in Pravilnik o isticanju i vijanju zastave trgovačke mornarice SFRJ, published in Službeni list FNRJ, 2/81.

Željko Heimer, 15 October 2003

Administrative signal

Administrative signal - Image by Željko Heimer, 15 October 2003

The administrative signal (znak brodova pomorske uprave) was prescribed for use by the ships and boats in service of the maritime administration. The flag is blue, square with two white crossed anchors.

The exact name of the signal was changed eventually in the regulations in Croatia and Slovenia in the early 1990s, but the design of the flag was retained. Croatia adopted, however a more elaborated design, including the national coat of arms and a border. I presume that the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Serbia and Montenegro also continued to use the same flag.

Until the prescription of the river police pennant in 1962, the same administrative signal was used by inland river authorities, mainly on Danube and Sava.

Source: Pomorska enciklopedija VII: Zastava, Jugoslavenski leksikografski zavod, Zagreb, 1964.

Željko Heimer, 15 October 2003

Privileged navigation signal

Privileged navigation signal - Image by Željko Heimer, 15 October 2003

The 1950 regulations also prescribed the privileged navigation signal (znak brodova povlaštene plovidbe), to be used by the ships and boats in regular service on lines crossing borders that were granted special rights simplifying the customs inspection procedures.

The signal of the privileged navigation is a green square flag with a white diagonal.

The same signal was prescribed in Croatia after 1990s.

Source: Pomorska enciklopedija VII: Zastava, Jugoslavenski leksikografski zavod, Zagreb, 1964.

Željko Heimer, 15 October 2003

Postal signal

The third signal prescribed in 1950 is the postal signal (znak brodova koji prevoze postu) for the ships and boats carrying mail.
The design is unknown to me except the fact that it included the postal horn. Such a signal was prescribed in Yugoslavia before the Second World War (a square tricolor flag with a wide white stripe charged with a blue posthorn) and also by the Independent State of Croatia (the same flag but triangular with the order of stripes changed).

At some point the postal signal was dropped, as it is not mentioned in the 1990s regulations either in Croatia or Slovenia. It may be that the aforementioned 1981 amendment dropped it.

Source: Pomorska enciklopedija VII: Zastava, Jugoslavenski leksikografski zavod, Zagreb, 1964.

Željko Heimer, 15 October 2003

River Police pennant

The River Police pennant (Znak plovila u upravnoj službi unutrašnje plovidbe, literally, signal of a vessel in administrative service of inland navigation) was prescribed by Law Pravilnik o izmjeni i dopuni Pravilnika o isticanju i vijanju zastave trgovačke mornarice i brodarstva unutrašnje plovidbe FNRJ i znakova na brodovima trgovačke mornarice i brodarstva unutrašnje plovidbe, adopted on 22 December 1962 and published in Službeni list FNRJ, 43/52 [sic! more probably, 43/62].

The administrative vessels on the rivers used the blue square administrative signal since its adoption in 1950 until 1962 when it was replaced with a new signal. It was a white pennant with a blue border inscribed with the number of the ship (according to Pomorska enciklopedija), but the exact design is unknown. A similar signal was adopted by the authorities of the Danube countries (Austria, Hungary) following the Danube Commission recommendation. A similar signal was also prescribed in Croatia in the 1990s. The terse description in Pomorska enciklopedija allows many different interpretations. The most strightforward of them is a white square flag with a blue border and a black number in the middle, but I doubt that this was so, and it goes much more probably for a white triangular pennant with a blue voided horizontal lozenge with number in it, as are the River Police pennants in other Danube states.

Source: Pomorska enciklopedija VII: Zastava, Jugoslavenski leksikografski zavod, Zagreb, 1964.

Željko Heimer, 20 October 2003