Colonial Flags (Denmark)

Last modified: 2025-10-18 by klaus-michael schneider
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• Danish West Indies
• Pennant of the Westindia-Guinea Company
• Blue Ensign
• Blue Pennant
• Doubtful White Ensign
• Danish East Indies
• Danish Asiatic Company
• Danish East Asiatic Company
• Danish East Indian Parcel Service

• U.S Virgin Islands - Danish West Indies (1798-1842)
• House Flags of Danish Shipping Companies
• Denmark

Danish West Indies

Pennant of the Westindia-Guinea Company

It was a red splitflag, also called swallow tail pennant, with a small Dannebrog in canton and either the seal or the royal cypher golden on a white square shifted to hoist. The Westindia-Guinea Company had been the predecessor of the Danish Westindia Company (Dansk Vestindisk Kompagni) and operated the trade between Denmark and its possessions in the Caribbean and at the shores of the Gold Coast, nowadays Ghana. It was established in 1625 and became a chartered company by a grant of Kong Christian 5 in 1671. In 1754 the Danish government acquired all the shares of the company and dissolved it.
Sources:
English WIKIPEDIA (B/W image)
this webpage
this webpage
Danish WIKIPEDIA
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 29 Sep 2025

Blue Ensign

A couple of flag books (from the 1803-8 period), and also some paintings (from the period 1796 to 1848), show a flag with the Dannebrog in the canton of a blue flag. In the flag books this is labelled "Danish in West Indies". The flag has been thoroughly discussed by Jan Henrik Munksggard in an article called "Dannebrog i blatt pa danske og norske skip",(Sjöfartshistorisk arbok 1985, pp. 143-205, Bergen, 1986). Munksgaard points out that no official sources can tell us what the flag was, and that the flag is not the colonial ensign of the Danish West India. However, he argues that the flag was hoisted as a courtesy ensign on the foretop mast by ships bound for the colony.
Jan Oskar Engene, 1997

Blue Pennant

There was a triangular version of the blue flag with the Dannebrog in the canton. It is displayed in a painting of C.C. Parnemans(?) 1798, showing the Danish merchantman ST:CROIX PACKET leaving the harbour of Paramaribo (Dutch Guiana/Suriname). The flag is hoisted at the mainmast and it is topped by a small Dannebrog pennant. On the fore- and mizzenmast there are hoisted small ordinary Dannebrogs, upon the bowsprit and the stern there are big rectangular Dannebrog-flags showing on a white rectangle the cypher of King Christian 7 in the centre of both flags. The painting is exhibited in the Handels- og Søfartsmuseet på Kronborg (HSM) in Helsingør (=Elsinore)/Denmark.
Source:Per Eilstrup & Nils Eric Boesgaard: "Fjernt fra Danmark", Copenhagen 1974, p.120
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 28 Mar 2006

Doubtful White Ensign

The white ensign had been in use unofficially mainly in the Danish West Indies. It had been white with a Dannebrog in canton.
Source: WIKIMEDIA
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 19 July 2025

According to Dr. Henning Henningsen (Flag Bulletin # 207, Sept-Oct 2002) there were distinctive flags flown by the Danish in the West Indies (Dansk i Vestindien) He provides documentation of the usage of those flags in the period between 1798 and 1842 (at least). There were three flags: blue, white and blue pennant. Also, in 1914 the Coat-of-Arms was designed, but because of the World War I, it was never implemented. And in 1917, the little Danish paradise in the Caribbean was sold to the Americans, who promptly renamed it United States Virgin Islands.
Source: Henningsen 2002
Chrystian Kretowicz, 7 Feb 2003

It is by no means certain that all of them are connected with the Danish West Indies and there is great need to be specific about what kind of flags they were, or in other words what kind of function they had. Labelling the blue and white flag with the Dannebrog in canton as ensigns of the Danish West Indies may be interpreted to the effect that they were used instead of the normal Danish ensign, which was almost certainly not the case. The white flag with the Dannebrog in the canton is the one with the weakest connection to the Danish West Indies. As connected with the Danish West Indies it is only known from the flag book by Gabriel Hesselberg
Source: Hesselberg 1790 - 1810?
Jan Oskar Engene, 9 Feb 2003

I would not consider that a reliable source.
Elias Granqvist, 19 July 2025

What is unreliable, or, better said, unsupported, is the flag design itself, white with a Dannebrog canton. One can see on that same filepage that this image was picked up to be used only in two WIKIPEDIA articles, namely about the U.S. Virgin Islands and their flag history, in the Japanese language version.
António Martins-Tuválkin, 20 July 2025

Danish East Indies

Danish Asiatic Company

1770 Illustration

Loughran (1979) shows "The flag of the Dansk Asiatisk Compagnie was derived from the Danish national flag ... It was distinguished from the Dannebrog by being swallowtailed, and defaced in the centre by arms which varied over the years. The two examples illustrated date from 1770 and 1800 respectively."
Željko Heimer, 7 June 2004

1800 Illustration

1802 Illustration

Loughran (1979) shows a third flag of this company, flown by the frigate "Kronprinssen" of 1802, and is completely different. This flag is rather a house flag - that was, I suppose, hoisted on "mainmast" or some other suitable place, while the usual ensign was hoisted at stern.
Željko Heimer, 7 June 2004

What was the activity of the Danish Asian Company?
Nozomi Kariyasu, 7 June 2004

Didn´t they have treaty ports in China? The Danish flag is one of those shown on the Shanghai International Settlement flag.
James Dignan, 8 June 2004

Danish East Asiatic Company

The state ensign defaced with the golden inscription "D. Ø. K." along the horizontal crossbar and with a rectangular patch in the canton containing a light blue top-towards-the-hoist slanted cabled anchor and in its lower hoist corner letters "ØK".
Željko Heimer, 2 June 2004

Østasiatiske Kompagni (East Asia Company)

The website of the National Maritime Museum describes the house flag of "the house flag of Det Østasiatiske Kompagni A/S, København. A white flag with a blue anchor placed diagonally and fouled by a chain and the letters "Ø. K." below. The flag is made of a wool and synthetic fibre bunting. It has a cotton hoist and is machine sewn. The design is printed.
Source: British National Maritime Museum

Jarig Bakker, 23 Aug 2004

Det Østasiatiske Kompagni A/S, Københav: white, a blue fouled anchor placed in a diagonal position (the flukes toward lower right), in the left lower corner the blue letters "Ø. K." Two versions are shown on Josef Nüsse´s site under "Flags", "Danish Shipping Companies", "Seite 6": first, the flag with the letters nearer the anchor, which is bigger and has a chain rather than a cable, second, said flag in a split Dannebrog´s upper hoist corner and golden letters "D. Ø. K.". "K." in the centre of the cross, horizontally arranged.
Jan Mertens, 11 Dec 2003

Østasiatiske Kompagni. The 2nd flag mentioned by Jan Mertens has the company house flag in the canton flying from a pole which is angled bendwise. This differs from that shown in "Das große flaggenbuch" which only has a panel of the flag and is defined as used by sailing vessels in overseas service. I suspect it may have been used as an Ensign including for motor vessels judging by an illustration of the "Selandia" 1912 in "Merchant Ships of the World in colour 1910-1929" byLaurence Dunn which has the houseflag flying from the mainmast and what seems to be this 2nd flag as the Ensign from the stern.
Neale Rosanoski, 11 Sep 2004

Particular Flag reported 1865

It was a splitflag in Dannebbrogsrød with golden serifed inscription "POH" on the centre of the horizontal crossbar.
Source: Steenbergen (1865), plate 10, image 357
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 9 Aug 2025

Danish East Indian Parcel Service

by Željko Heimer

The state ensign with a white panel in the middle containing a yellow emblem. The emblem consist of the royal cypher of Christian IX (CR IX) with two crowned lions rampant regardant combatant holding two crowns and initials DOP.
Željko Heimer, 3 June 2004

DOP stands for Dansk Ostindisk Paquet, a shipping service run to keep up trade with the colonies in India at a time when the Asiatic Company was unable to send ships. We are talking about the period from 1803 to 1806, and the cipher should be the one for Christian 7. To see it reported in 1929 as a colonial merchant ensign is a reminder that in many instances flags and ensigns take on a life of their own in flag books and charts long after they went out of use "in real life."
Jan Oskar Engene, 6 June 2004

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