122E

SPANISH NAVAL ENSIGN, ATTRIBUTED TO THE

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles Start Price:2,000.00 USD Estimated At:4,000.00 - 6,000.00 USD
SPANISH NAVAL ENSIGN, ATTRIBUTED TO THE
SPANISH NAVAL ENSIGN, ATTRIBUTED TO THE BATTLE OF SANTIAGO DE CUBA, 3 JULY 1898. On 3 July 1898, six Spanish Navy vessels, consisting of the armored cruisers, Infanta Maria Teresa, Cristobol Colon, Almirante Oquendo, and Vizcaya, and the two torpedo boats, Terror and Pluton, attempted to break out of the blockade of the harbor at Santiago de Cuba. The six ships were ravaged by the accurate fire of the armored cruiser U.S.S. Brooklyn, and the battle ships, U.S.S. Oregon, U.S.S. Texas, U.S.S. Indiana, and U.S.S. Indiana, all aided by the two armed yachts, U.S.S. Vixen and U.S.S. Gloucester. This Spanish Naval Ensign came from the estate of Admiral William T. Sampson, nominal commander of the U.S. blockading fleet (but absent aboard the armored cruiser, U.S.S. New York, enroute to a conference with his Army equivalent, during the actual battle); the flag is credited to have belonged to Admiral Cevera's flagship, the Infanta Maria Teresa, which was run aground burning during the battle after heavy losses and severe damage. The flag measures 59" (basically 5 ft.) on its hoist by 122" (10 ft.) on its fly, and is composed of three horizontal bars of wool bunting, the upper and lowest red and 15" wide, machine sewn to the 29-1/4" wide yellow bar in the center. The center bar bears a bunting panel (27" from the hoist, 24" high and 19" wide) dyed and painted with the combined coat-of-arms of Castille (yellow castle on a red ground, highlighted black) and Leon (rampant, crowned red lion on a white ground, similarly highlighted in black), under a gold, black, and red highlighted crown. This panel is appliqued by machine stitches to the obverse side, and on the reverse exposed by cutting away the yellow bunting behind it, where it is also painted to match the painting on the obverse side. A trapezoid of red bunting, 7" to 8" on the hoist (tapering to 1-1/2") by 8-14" to 9" long on the fly, is machine sewn to each corner at the junction of the flag and its heading as a reinforcement. A white (faded to tan) linen heading, 1-1/2" wide is sewn along the leading edge of the flag in the form of a sleeve for a single rope, looped into eyelets at each end for attaching to a halyard. Inscribed in ink along the obverse side of the heading are what appear to be the words "Pavilion" and "Cevera", barely decipherable script letters. On the reverse side of the heading, near its top, is stamped or printed the words "SPANISH ENSIGN" (in English), which suggests (with the 1:2 overall proportions) that the flag may have been of English manufacture. (Further research may discover an English source for Spanish Naval flags). CONDITION: Yellow field of the flag (approximately 3 feet from the fly) bears a large (24" high by 8" wide) hole in conjunction with a 18" tear that runs to within 10-1/2" of the hemmed fly edge, possibly battle damage. Uppermost red bar shows typical usage wear in the form of fraying along the final 12" of the upper edge. Lower red bar, however, bears clear evidence of souvenir taking, as a section 58" from the hoist has clearly been torn or cut out with right angle cuts-- all suggesting that the flag was deemed important by its captors. 4-57468 HMM