Mexico - Registration flags

Banderas de matrícula

Last modified: 2009-06-19 by juan manuel gabino villascán
Keywords: mexico | registration | matrícula | department (gulf) | department (pacific) | merchant | marine |
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• Registration flags
• List of ports with their own registration flags

• Registration flags: Gulf Department (Departamento del Golfo)
• Registration flags: Pacific Department (Departamento del Pacífico)

• Mexico - Merchant marine
• Mexico - Navy
• Mexico

• 1858 - ca. 1889
• Ca. 1923

1858 - ca. 1889

These ensigns shall be used by merchant ships of the Republic of Mexico, independently of the national ensign, in order to show the department they belong to. Their size is proportional to the size of the vessel.

From: [leg58]
Quoted by Ivan Sache, Dec, 19, 2001

In 1883 the British Consul at La Coruña referring to what I take to be the same sort of flag wrote that, "Spanish fly matriculation flag of vessel at mainmast to show what port she belongs to."

Legras shows the ensigns for six departments (Vera Cruz, Campeche, Tampico, Isla del Carmen, Tabasco, and Túxpam) located on the Gulf of Mexico. They are also shown in Siebmacher.

The ensigns for the other departments were apparently never published in a flag book. The archives of the SHOM have kept a gouach plate, signed by the Mexican Minister of War and Navy, and sent to the French authorities. The plate is entitled "Banderas nacionales, de matricula e insignias de la Republica mexicana" (National flags, registration flags and ensigns of the Mexican Republic).

In the 1889 edition of [f9r89], the registration ensigns are no longer shown, and it is therefore probable they were suppressed short before 1889.

David Potero, Dec, 22, 2001

Ca. 1923

In [ltg23] the registration flags (Banderas de matrícula) of 28 Mexican ports are illustrated, plus four more unidentified. The flags keep a very simple design as those used in 1851- ca. 1889, but by any reason the flags changed. According the author, the Mexican Navy Administration is divided also into two Departaments (Departments): Departamento del Golfo and Departamento del Pacífico.

Juan Manuel Gabino Villascán, January 20, 2002.

List of ports with their own registration flags

• Gulf Department (Departamento del Golfo)
• Pacific Department (Departamento del Pacífico)

Gulf Department
Departamento del Golfo

As listed by [leg58] and [ltg23]

Pacific Department
Departamento del Pacífico

As listed by [leg58] and [ltg23]

Anything below this line was not added by the editor of this page.