Houseflags of Norwegian maritime companies (H)

The flag is horizontally divided red-white-red with H.J.S. (black) in the white stripe.
Ivan Sache, 24 January 2004

#184 H.K. Wallem, Norwegian and Panamanian flags - flag red- white - blue - white - red, proportioned 2:1:1:1:2.

Note that the funnel is identical to Mowinckel (NO) Brown (1951) has the same colors, but proportions c. 4:1:1:1:4 for Wallem & Co., A/S, Bergen & Hong Kong
Jarig Bakker, 8 January 2005

Haugesund - blue flag, white border; white "W".
Jarig Bakker, 22 Janurary 2004

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The company was founded by Hakon Baron Waldemar Wrangell, a colourful character it seems, dates 1859-1942. The company survived his death and was at one point the third largest shipping company (transporting goods, herring fishery, and whaling) in town.

Vormedal Forlag shows a book cover where we see a thin border and not so thin initial. The 1928 German Flaggenbuch (Part II) ^[18] gives the same rendition as Brown 1926 ^[9] does.

Haugesund, a port in SW Norway, was indeed Wrangell’s business seat confirmed by skipet.no (houseflags no longer available).

The rather thick initial appears again but also a predecessor with a red field.

Wrangell dates listed by ‘Skipet’ are as follows: general dates, 1882-1988. ‘H.M. Wrangell’ 1882-1911, addition of ‘& Co.’ from 1911- 1914 then becoming ‘H.M. Wrangell & Co. AS’. Business terminated in 1988.

Jan Mertens, 6 May 2008

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The company was founded in 1882 by Haakon Magne Valdemar Wrangell (1859-1942), a shipowner from Haugesund also involved in whaling and herring export. He also served as mayor of Haugesund, president of the Norwegian shipowners' association and Member of Parliament. I cannot find any information that he was a baron, quite the contrary a history thesis notes he worked his way up from a meager background, though he might have started out as a poor nobleman (this not very likely as the nobility was abolished in Norway in 1821 anyway). However, he was a consul.

The company, known as H. M. Wrangell & Co. A/S from 1914 according to Skorsteinsmerker og rederiflagg ^[20], sold its last ship (oil tanker Corona) in 1979. Two flags are given for this company in the plates of Skorsteinsmerker og rederiflagg 1996 ^[19] and Skorsteinsmerker og rederiflagg 1999. The first one has a white bordered red field with a white W, the other one the same but with a blue field (still with white borders). No date is given for when the switch was made, so I cannot shed any light on whether this was in connection with the two partners entering the company. The two sources, are a bit vague on whether this happened in 1914 or earlier.

Concerning the thickness of the initial, this is probably very difficult to establish exactly, possibly there may have been several versions in use over the life span of the company.
Jan Oskar Engene, 7 May 2008

This particular shipping company flag reached via http://www.cabinclass.com/dinnerinthediner/pages/archives/steamship/haan_01.htm
Jan Mertens, 2 July 2005