Navy Jack sends message

Starting 9/11, all ships to fly flag that warns 'Don't Tread on Me'

By James W. Crawley UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

September 6, 2002

Navy warships will signal a historic message next week as they haul up a flag from the Navy's earliest days – the first Navy Jack.

Emblazoned with the words "Don't Tread on Me," the flag will be hoisted over all U.S. warships on Sept. 11, marking the first anniversary of the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.

They will stay up until the war on terrorism ends, Navy Secretary Gordon England ordered last week.

Yesterday, the amphibious ship Rushmore became the first ship here to receive the banner and briefly raised it during a short ceremony. The jack, which was taken down minutes later, will be displayed on the quarterdeck until Wednesday.

The flags, bearing a rattlesnake stretched across 13 bars of red and white, above the words "Don't Tread on Me", were first flown from the nascent Navy's ships during the Revolutionary War. The rattlesnake design was adopted by Commodore Esek Hopkins, who commanded the vessels.

"It's a connection to what we stand for," Rushmore skipper Cmdr. Clayton Saunders said yesterday.

Seaman Recruit Teshell Harris, who arrived on board two weeks ago, received the flag from Saunders and carried it to the bow. After a brief problem attaching the banner to a lanyard, she and two other sailors raised the flag.

"It was a surprise, but an honor to present the flag, especially since I'm new to the ship," Harris said.

One of the helpers, Petty Officer 2nd Class Clarice King, said sailors are proud of the historic banner and motto.

"It's a part of history, and now, in the 21st century, we're hoisting the flag again," she said.

Harris added, "The jack stands for what they went out and did in 1775, so it gives us hope."

The "Don't Tread on Me" flag won't be replacing the Stars and Stripes.

Instead, it will replace the Union Jack – a banner of blue with 50 white stars replicating the U.S. flag's canton. The jack will be displayed from the jack staff between 8 a.m. and sunset while the ship is at anchor.

The jack staff is the small mast on a ship's bow.

The American flag, known as an ensign, is flown from the stern flagstaff while at anchor and on the ship's mast while at sea.

Until Wednesday, the Navy Jack – the one with the rattlesnake – will be flown only by the Navy's oldest active vessel, the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk. In 1976, the nation's bicentennial, all Navy warships flew the Navy Jack in honor of the celebration.

The rattlesnake and motto, symbolizing the colonists' resistance to British rule, were familiar images and themes before and during the Revolutionary War. Other designs included a coiled snake on a solid background. The first Marines painted the snake on their drums.

However, there is little historical record of the exact design of the first Navy Jack. Historians trace the rattlesnake, stripes and words to a color print in an 1880 history of the U.S. flag and written descriptions.

The Union Jack – with its stars-only design – was probably adopted in 1777.

[Not to be confused with the British Union Jack. which is now known as the Union Flag because it was politically incorrect and nobody wanted it to be called the Union Jack and Jill. Silly sods.]

-- Anonymous, September 06, 2002

Answers

Sounds good to me, too!

-- Anonymous, September 06, 2002

"The rattlesnake and motto, symbolizing the colonists' resistance to British rule, were familiar images and themes before and during the Revolutionary War."

One of the best known ones was the one that my town carried into the beginning of the Revolutionary War (although I guess it isn't a snake after all...):

http://www.town.bedford.ma.us/flag.html

-- Anonymous, September 06, 2002