Last modified: 2018-07-04 by rob raeside
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image by António Martins-Tuválkin, 17 July 2007
Source:
http://pics.boatnerd.com/view_photo.php?set_albumName=album04&id=DSC00209
This cheerful flag is orange with a large white diamond touching the vertical
edges (but not the horizontal ones: why?) and a green trefoil (shamrock) in the centre.
This photo shows the
flag in action.
From the firm’s website:
“Our fleet of tugboats is suitable for any and every towing need - large or
small. With 2000 - 3000 hp engines, longer, wider and heavier hulls providing
increased stability pulling capability, and unobstructed visibility, our tugs
are unsurpassed for ship handling and power on the lakes. Equipment and heavy
lifts, salvage and stranding, and dead ship towing.”
As you can see from the many pictures on this site, the Gaelic’s activities
include much more than tugging. It operates barges, transports exceptional
loads, etc. Company seat: Lincoln Park, Michigan.
For a bit of history – and the origin of the flag design – see
http://www.diamondjack.com/history.html:
“Captain Bill Hoey of Grosse Ile, owner and operator of Diamond Jack's River
Tours and the Gaelic Tugboat Company, was born in Ferndale Michigan. As a
youngster he spent summers at his uncle's cottage in northern Canada, which
nurtured his interest in boats. The great old steamboats that plied the Great
Lakes captured Hoey's imagination, and led to his decision to pursue a career in
the maritime industry.
In 1961, Hoey was working for the Fuller Marine Towing Co., which was owned by
Elmer Dean and Warren Fuller. In 1964, Capt. Fuller retired and sold his
business to Hoey. The business grew with the towing of salt and oil barges and
with ship assistance --- moving the giant Great Lakes freighters into and out of
small areas. Success allowed Hoey to purchase more tugs, and at one point he ran
a fleet of 14 tugs. Being of Irish/Protestant descent, but also having a good
Irish/Catholic friend, Hoey selected orange, green and white as his fleet
colors.”
Jan Mertens, 29 September 2005
Frederick Gerhard & Co., New York (Source: PSMNY)
White with a narrow red stripe along the upper edge and a narrow blue stripe
along the lower, with a black P in the center. No information on what the P
stood for.
Source: chart of "Private Signals of the Merchants of New York
Joe McMillan, 12 October 2001
J. C. Gilchrist, Cleveland (Source: 1909 annex to [ruh05])
A Great Lakes line; white G on a red field.
Source: 1909 update to Flaggenbuch 1905
Joe McMillan, 12 October 2001
S. Gitcovich & Co., Galveston, Texas
Nothing on this one except white with a red lozenge and the monogram SL in
white.
Source: Wedge (1926)
Joe McMillan, 14 October 2001
S. Gitcovich & Co. Wedge (1926) actually
gives the name as Sgitcovich & Co., also showing in the 1929 edition, not that
this makes me any the wiser.
Neale Rosanoski, 24 June 2004
Glidden & Williams, Boston (1852)
Glidden & Williams is described in Samuel Eliot Morison's "Maritime History of
Massachusetts" as the most important clipper firm operating out of Boston to
California (1840s-50s). My sources seems to show this flag as a triangular
pennant, as I've drawn it, white over blue with a red star overall, but it may
have been rectangular or existed in a rectangular variant.
Source: clipper card illustrated at
www.tenpound.com
Joe McMillan, 14 October 2001
Glidden & Williams. According to Loughran (1979)
they used a white over yellow biband with a red star [see us~g158a.gif attached]
for their clipper "Witch of the Wave".
Neale Rosanoski, 24 June 2004
At
http://www.tenpound.com/197/il/35.html, a letter from 7 September 1852 from
Glidden & Williams, confirms the house flag as white over yellow with a red star
in the centre.
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 12 March 2011
Globe Navigation Co., Seattle
Among the last sailing ship lines. Flag blue with a white globe, latitude and
longitude lines shown in red. Similar emblem to that on the fly of the last flag
of American Export Line, but no connection known.
Source: 1909 update to Flaggenbuch 1905, Lloyds
1912
Joe McMillan, 14 October 2001
Goodhue & Co., New York
Founded 1809 as Goodhue and Swett; operated a line of transatlantic packets and
served as agents for the Canton firm of Russell and Co. Also part of the
consortium that ran the famous Black Ball Line, and later merged with Charles
Marshall & Co, the Black Ball's final operators. Flag divided vertically, red to
the hoist and white to the fly with a large black disk overall, possibly a
reference to the Black Ball Line.
Source:
chart of "Private Signals of the Merchants of New York"
Joe McMillan, 14 October 2001
G. Gordon, New York
Red with a white cross, overall on a black disk the letter B in white. I do not
believe this mid-19th century company was affiliated with the Black Ball Line,
but the flag would imply that it might have been.
Source:
chart of "Private Signals of the Merchants of New York"
Joe McMillan, 14 October 2001
Gordon & Talbot, New York
A mid-19th century firm. Flag burgee shaped, blue over red divided by a narrow
white line, and the initials of the firm also in white.
Source: chart of "Private Signals of the Merchants of New York"
Joe McMillan, 16 October 2001
US shipping lines house flags - 'G' continued