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Danish Asian and East Asian Company Ensigns

Danish Asian Company
Danish East Asian Company

Danish Asian Company

1770 illustration

by Željko Heimer

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 center by arms which varied over the years. The two examples illustrated date from 1770 and 1800 respectively."
Željko Heimer, 7 June 2004

1800 illustration

by Željko Heimer

1802 illustration

by Željko Heimer

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 Asian Company

56:107, by Željko Heimer

The state ensign defaced with the golden inscription "D. Ų. 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 "ŲK".
Željko Heimer, 2 June 2004

Ostasiatiske Kompagni (East Asia Company)

image by Jarig Bakker, based on the British National Maritime Museum

The website of the National Maritime Museum describes the house flag of "the house flag of Ostasiatiske Kompagni A/S Det, Copenhagen. A white flag with a blue anchor placed diagonally and fouled by a chain and the letters 'O/. 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.
Jarig Bakker, 23 August 2004

Ostasiatiske Kompagni A/S, Copenhagen: white, a blue fouled anchor placed in a diagonal position (the flukes toward lower right), in the left lower corner the blue letters ŲK. 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.Ų.K. in the cross's centre, horizontally arranged.
Jan Mertens, 11 December 2003

Östasiatiske Kompagni. The 2nd flag mentioned by Jan 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" by Laurence 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 September 2004