ALASKA STEAMSHIP CO.

The original Black Ball flag is red with a black ball, adopted by Charles Peabody, a descendant of the New York Black Ball Line’s founders, and flown from the first vessel, Willapa. It is documented in Lloyds 1904, which also assigns it to Puget Sound Navigation. Rosanoski therefore rejects the claim that Peabody designed it after the 1909 amalgamation. Its use is said to have ended with the Guggenheim takeover, usually dated 1909 in this discussion, and to have been revived in 1928 by Charles’s son Alexander Marshall Peabody in the Puget Sound ferry business.

The successor added a white rim and the letter “A”. A published account places the change after Peabody’s retirement, but Rosanoski doubts that timing because the design already appears in Lloyds 1912. The form of the “A” varies, apparently changing after the Second World War from Merchant Ships 1949 onwards, with Brown 1951 and US Navy 1961 exceptions. Merchant Ships 1949 also notes a possible device on the buff funnel. A cap badge bearing the flag was identified in FOTW correspondence.

The Ships List also shows a version with the letter but without the white rim, alongside A119 and with the same funnel, without giving a source. Rosanoski questions the apparent implication that it came first and suggests that unclear edging on a cap badge may have misled the portrayal.

Stewart 1963 shows a large black diamond bearing a white circle within a white annulet outlined in black, lettered “ALASKA” above and “STEAMSHIP Co.” below, with the flag on a pole superimposed. Rosanoski regards omission of this detail in Brown 1958 and Stewart 1953/1957 as a likely printing-size limitation. Those Stewart editions indicate a base darker than yellow; the 1953 red inner circle on the flag is corrected in its notes. A photograph of Alaska in 1952 and a colour logo provide further evidence. Mitchell simplifies the emblem to the red flag on a white circle.