Friday Find: a WWII-era director’s flag

This flag flew on the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey (USC&GS) Ship Wainwright during World War II when the USC&GS Director Rear Admiral Lee Otis Colbert was on board. Admirals of the sea services, known as "Flag Officers," are entitled to their own special flags flown aboard ship to denote their presence and command. The USC&GS followed the U.S. Navy’s practice of using the white stars of the officer's rank insignia on a blue flag. However, the USC&GS added a triangle in the center to differentiate their flags from those of the U.S. Navy.

Rear Admiral Colbert became the third director of the USC&GS in 1938 and led the agency throughout World War II and into the early years of the Cold War. Colbert was one of the original 119 Coast and Geodetic Survey Corps officers when the USC&GS was formed. He transferred to a U.S. Navy billet during World War I and made nine trips with the Northern Pacific as it carried troops from New York to Brest. On his return to the USC&GS, Colbert served at the Survey’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., then went on to hold several leadership positions before he was named USC&GS Director.

The Wainwright was built in 1942 as an auxiliary survey vessel for the USC&GS by Robinson Marine at Benton Harbor, Michigan.The USC&GS used Wainwright to conduct wire-drag hydrographic surveys along the East Coast of the United States along with the USC&GSS Hilgard. The two ships would drag a wire between them at different depths to ascertain whether there were any submerged obstructions, such as rocks or shipwrecks, in that area. As smaller craft, the Wainwright and Hilgard were not taken over by the Navy during World War II, so they continued doing USC&GS survey work throughout the war.

Rear Admiral Colbert’s flag flew at Wainwright's commissioning ceremony in January  1942. It is 36 inches tall by 52 inches wide and consists of wool bunting and a canvas hoist with two brass grommets. The hoist is marked “DIRECTOR.FLAG. NO 2” and “EMERSON MFG. CO., S.F.,CAL. MAKERS.”