The merchant vessels of the two nationalities continued to use their English and Scottish national Jacks as before, but the Scottish ships were especially warned that they must not carry either the King's arms or the red cross of St. George, and in case any of these Scottish ships should be met so doing, the State's colonel-admirals were ordered to "admonish them not to do it in future."
19. Commonwealth Boat Flag.
The position of the Jacks was now:
| A.D., 1648. | |
| The State Ships | The St. George crosse. |
| English Merchantmen | The St. George crosse. |
| Scotch Merchantmen | The St. Andrew crosse. |
This position the English St. George Jack continued to hold on the ships of the State navy until 1660, when another change took place, and, at the "Restoration" of Charles II., the two-crossed "Union Flagge" returned, without any proclamation, to the places where it had been displayed before the change made by the Commonwealth Parliament.
On the Naseby (20) it will be noticed that the two-crossed Jack is flying at the bow and on the mizzen, instead of the single red cross flag ordered by Parliament. How this came about is told in the next chapter.
Here, then, ended the period during which the English Jack, having been restored as a single flag, had continued to be, from 1648 to 1660, the only Jack authorized to be used on the men-of-war.
After the return of the King his subjects evidently began, in their enthusiasm, to make such indiscriminate use of this "King's Jack" instead of the single St. George Jack that they needed, a few years afterwards, to be reminded of the special instructions respecting the flag which had been given in the previous reign. In consequence of this, in 1663, another proclamation was issued, under Charles II., from which the following extract is made: