Cap'n Andy!

Just a thought - why does Luxembourg have a navy?  Or, to be more accurate, why does Luxembourg have an ensign, when it doesn't have a navy?

And why does Andy favour the ensign over the national flag?

What am I talking about?

OK, flags: in the UK we have what we have ALWAYS called the Union Jack (so don't listen to weirdos who try to tell you that it should be called the Union Flag, it has always been the Union Jack, and no-one will ever stop me calling it that.)

Here's the good old Union Jack, familiar to everyone the world over. Oh boy, I love being English!

It's a composite of three flags: we start with the St Andrew's cross of Scotland, which was blue with a white diagonal cross. On top of that goes the red diagonal St Patrick's cross of  Ireland, and on top of that goes the big red St George's cross of England.  Wales was already part of England at the time, so it doesn't get a "cross" of its own, and yes, the Welsh are probably "cross" about that.

It has a "right" way and a "wrong" way to be flown: the pic above shows the correct way, assuming the flag-pole is on the left. If in doubt (and if you actually care about this stuff), look at the white diagonal stripe where it meets the invisible flagpole on the left: it is fatter above the red diagonal, yes? Then that is correct.  Flying it upside down is a terrible sin in the UK, and will bring ridicule upon you.

Then we have our Navy flags: the most well-known being this little fella, the Red Ensign, which is flown by merchant ships, so it's seen quite a lot.

The other familiar one is the White Ensign, this chap on the left, and he is only flown by members of the Royal Navy *turns nose up snobbishly*, and as my father was in the Royal Navy, we were allowed to fly this one on his boat.

Yes, this could explain something about why I laughed so much at being called Captain Coug!

Anyway, are you all with me? Country flags are for general civil use, on land, and Ensign flags are for use on boats.

Now we turn to Luxembourg. We all know what we call the Lux flag, Andy's lovely light-blue-and-white stripey one, with the lion on it. As per my socks. But hang on, officially that's the Lux Ensign, not the Lux flag.

The Lux flag is this one, the less-than-exciting red white and blue stripes - although I have to say, on paper it sounds like a good colour combination, although the shade of blue is slightly odd: and of course the execution lets it down somewhat.

Also, it's a bit too close to too many other national flags.

No, this is the one that we associate with Andy: the Lux Ensign:


But why does he favour the Ensign, then? Was his daddy in the navy? Oh, hold on, Lux doesn't have a navy, on account of being what you might call land-locked. Although that is no excuse, Czechoslovakia (as it was) had a navy, and they only had a big lake.

What would the Lux Navy look like, I wonder? (right)

OK, I'm sniggering, but I put the phrase "Luxembourg navy" into google and looked at images, and this is what came up (below).

Honestly, no kidding, this collection is apparently the Luxembourg Navy. Well, in Paris it is. Presumably it's on a lake....




So there you have it, Andy favours the Lux Ensign - and who could blame him, it's a lot classier than the boring civil one - despite having no obvious connections to it. I'd be interested to hear from anyone who knows anything more on this topic.

And actually, I'd better promote Andy to Admiral, as I am already a Captain, and I think he'd probably be senior to me.

*pauses to think* Hang on, I bet I've been sailing more than he has. I was sailing before he was born, thinking about it... (started at a very, very early age). OK, we'll hold him at Captain for now, until we find out more about it.

And in the meantime, here's me, aboard the Schleckland Ship:

...and sharp-eyed viewers will spot that, as per the little figure above,  I now have very red hair! Although not, sadly, quite as red as it said on the box: although the sitting-around-with-hair-plastered-to-head stage was frighteningly bright orange, it dulled down over half an hour and, when dry, came out a very fetching but disappointingly subtle shade of dark red.Well, it's probably safer this way.