Peak of the gaff. See the U.S. Navy's "NTP-13(B), Flags, Pennants,
and Customs," if you can find a copy. That's as authoritative a
reference on this point as you can find, but you may still get the
counterargument that a Navy directive doesn't trump the Flag Code
when it comes to flag display by civilians.
.
I've also seen letters in Navy and Coast Guard historical files in
response to public and Congressional queries on this point dating
back to at least the 1920s, and every one of them says the peak of
the gaff is the right place to fly the ensign on this type of
arrangement. But the tone of them suggests that the officers writing
them thought they had better things to do than adjudicate issues over
which their departments had no regulatory authority.
.
By the way, an interesting point is that if you don't put the ensign
at the gaff, you can't fly anything there, because the Flag Code does
say that the national flag must be displayed at the point of superior
honor or prominence vis-a-vis any other flags. It is indisputable
that the gaff is the point of superior honor to the truck on a mast
that is rigged with a gaff.
.
Let me say again, as I've said on the list in the past, that yacht
clubs could easily follow St. Paul's injunction and cease giving
offense to their non-yachting brethren (and sistren) if they would
just stop putting up these elaborate contrivances. Nautical
tradition is just as well served with a pole with crosstrees only
(without a gaff), on which the ensign flies at the truck, where the
uninitiated expect it to be. This arrangement is almost universal
within the US Navy and Coast Guard themselves.
--------------------------------------
I sourced this information by submitting your question to FOTW (Flags
Of The World), a website originally established by Giuseppe Bottasini,
devoted to vexillology. It contains more than 9900 pages about flags
and you can view more than 18,500 images of flags.
http://www.fotw.ca
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I hope this helps.
If you need further clarification, please ask before rating answer. |
