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Danziger Rhederei (German Shipping Company)

Danziger Rheederei A.G., Th. Rodenacker, Danzig

image by Jorge Candeias, 9 Dec 2004

Danziger Rhederei
Danziger Rhederei - other flag
Th. Rodenacker, Danzig

See also:

Danziger Rhederei

scan by Jorge Candeias, 9 Dec 2004

This flag is a white over red bicolour, with two large blue initials T and R in the center and a third, smaller, letter between them, also in blue. I suppose this is a "&", but I'm far from being sure. The caption, once more, is very hard to read. Half-reading, half-guessing, I came up with "Turiger Rh. A. G.", but this is probably wrong.
Jorge Candeias, 9 Dec 2004

The caption is 'Danziger Rh. A.G.' which reads as 'Danziger Rheederei A.G.' (old spelling for 'Reederei'). However the initials are 'T (small H) R' - had to blow this up to make sure.
A similar house flag is known, but having blue initials 'DRA' for its namesake. See this page.
As this particular source is a 1930 flag book, Jorge's variant could well be a predecessor. To complicate matters 'Artus', another Danzig shipping company, had 'Danziger Reederei' as an additional name.
Jan Mertens, 18 Dec 2006

Danziger Rhederei - other flag

image by Ivan Sache, 15 Mar 2008

The house flag of "Danziger Rhederei" is shown above, as horizontally divided white-red with the blue letters "T&R" in the middle.
Jan Mertens mentions another house flag with the blue letters "DRA", shown in a 1930 flag book. Lloyd's Book of House Flags and Funnels (1912), #31, p. 38, shows the same house flag.
Ivan Sache, 15 Mar 2008

Th. Rodenacker, Danzig

image sent by Jan Mertens, 4 Apr 2008

Riddle solved… This concerns the ‚ThR’ flag (newest message 16 Mar 2008) and what the initials might mean. For the answer we have to look at Griffin: ‘Flags national and mercantile’ of 1891 [gfi83]. No. 236 on (flag) p. 13 (p. 31 of the pdf file) identifies it as ‘Th. Rodenacker, Danzig’.

Some traces are found on the net although you have to steer clear of a once famous brewery! Herr Rodenacker may have been Wilhelm Theodor, a Danzig merchant; in any case the shipping company was already active in 1857 using ‘Danziger Rhederei’ as a working name. And ‘Th’ definitely meant ‘Theodor’.

According to an old German encyclopedia, ‘Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon / 6. Auflage 1905–1909’ (on-line), Rodenacker – listed among the smaller companies - operated twelve steamships at that time.

Last appearance of flag known to me about 1912. Not much information, but at least the initials have been deciphered.
Jan Mertens, 4 Apr 2008