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Iran - Shipping Lines

Irano-Hind Shipping Co. Ltd.
Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines

See also:

Irano-Hind Shipping Co. Ltd.

image by Ivan Sache, 27 November 2004

The website http://www.irisl.net also shows a flag for the associate company Irano-Hind Shipping Co. Ltd., formed as a 51/49 joint venture with The Shipping Corporation of India. The website image appears to show a diagonally quartered flag of green (upper) and red with the green quarters bearing the white letters "I and "H" respectively but according to my notes on sighting the flag 7.3.1985 flown by the "Hood" the red is actually orange and there is a small white circle at the centre point. Browns Flags and Funnels (1995) shows a slightly different version with green and gold quarters and a larger white circle.
Neale Rosanoski, 14 November 2004

image by Jarig Bakker, 13 September 2005

Image after Browns Flags and Funnels (1995), compiled by J.L. Loughran, Glasgow.
Irano Hind Shipping Co., Ltd., Teheran - per saltire green and orange; on green top and bottom white "IH", in center white disk.
Jarig Bakker, 13 September 2005

Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines

Formerly Arya National Shipping Lines

image by António Martins-Tuválkin, 28 November 2004

The website http://www.irisl.net is that of the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines. This commenced operations in 1967 as Arya National Shipping Lines and the original flag as shown by Browns Flags and Funnels (1979) and Loughran 1979 was a horizontal triband of green, white and red with the white being broad and bearing a black emblem which appears to be a stylized bird.
Neale Rosanoski, 14 November 2004

Excluding the lettering and anchor, this symbol is used to represent certain supernatural entities such as the afreshteh (angels) and Ormazd himself. Nowadays, outside of the
religious parsi, it is sometime used as a good luck charm by some Persians.
Marc Pasquin, 17 November 2004

image by Ivan Sache, 27 November 2004

In 1980 the name was changed to Iran National Shipping Lines and was again changed in 1981 to the current Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines. The original flag was changed but sightings reported numerous variations (in 1986 I was told that over a dozen had been reported with wide differences in some cases). I have seen one myself, in 1986 flown by the "Iran Fallahi" being a similar triband atop the original flag but with the emblem on the white band being a green circle bearing a white cargo ship with superstructure aft sailing to fly, the circle being encircled by green inscriptions with that to hoist being "ISLAMIC REP. OF IRAN S.L." and that in fly the [probable same] in Farsi, and ensigned with the green National Arms, whilst on the upper green band was white Arabic script. Detail of the emblem and the upper Arabic script was obtained earlier from the company website but the current site does not appear to show these any more although the Arms can be viewed on a bow photo on one of the site's pages.

Brown 1995 shows a slightly different version both for the flag, with equal bands being shown, and of the emblem, the circle becoming a green ring and the ship also green, being surrounded by what is probably the same green inscriptions and Arms. I understand that this is one of the variations referred to.
Neale Rosanoski, 14 November 2004

image located by Dave Martucci, 20 November 2011
Source: ebay (no longer online)

image located by Jonathan Dixon, 7 December 2011

Another one of these flags has just been sold on ebay, but with the "I.R.I. Shipping Lines" as the English text, confirming that both versions of the logo have been used in flags of the company.
Jonathan Dixon, 7 December 2011

The flag image provided by Dave is in line with a flag flown by the "Iran Fallahi" 17.3.1986 although then I was unable to make out the detail of the inscriptions apart from that the one on the green band appeared to consist of 5 components rather that the 4, [or is it 3?] shown in this actual flag. On 17.5.1991 I saw the "Iran Mofid" which did not fly a flag but appeared to have the equivalent as it funnel design i.e. a white funnel with narrow white and red bands with a wider stretch of white between them and on the white the design of the green circle with a white ship, the circle being ensigned with the green National Arms and encircled with inscriptions in green, that to my left being in English as "ISLAMIC REP. OF IRAN S.L." with that to my right being in [what I assume is] Farsi, whilst on the green band was a longer [or so it looks] Farsi inscription comprised of straight lines and which was forwarded with my original message so I will not repeat it but I now wonder whether, although it looks longer, it is not meant to also represent "Allah Akbar" but looks different because it is in straight lines rather than the flowing script shown on the flag. For this sighting I was using a new monocular sight rather than just ordinary eyesight or the previous small binoculars previously used so I was able to get a lot more detail noted.

I subsequently note that I found this inscription in straight lines on the company website but that it was not shown on a later visit 14.11.2004. In meantime I assumed that the funnel design was the same as the flag and while in most cases I would probably be correct, in this case I now think I was not. I have a collection of funnel photos now with several variations of funnel designs with about half omitting the inscription on the green band whilst the English around the main emblem varies with "I.R.I. SHIPPING LINES" appearing on a couple but there does not appear to be any connection with whether the inscription upon the green band appears or not. I have not found any more straight line versions of "Allah Akbar" but some have an extra "dash" above one of the "pieces" [see attached logo and emblem]. So the flag found by Jonathan with its differences is in line with the funnels of some of these vessels although not for having equal bands. So far the reasons for the changes are not obvious though something may come up as I trace back through the ships.

This straight line inscription on the green band was sent to FOTW and resulted in the image made by Ivan which appears on the page "Iran – Shipping Lines under "Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines" and it would probably be appropriate to change to the flowing version of "Allah Akbar" rather than my straight line version.

There is still the problem of the version shown by Brown (1995) where the green circle has become a green ring enclosing a green ship rather than white on the green circle but with all the variations around who knows.
Neale Rosanoski, 18 December 2011