APL.

The eagle became the company emblem with the 1938 renaming. The company describes its first flag as inspired by the US presidential flag, with a red eagle and four stars; its December 1969 magazine confirms adoption in 1938. António Martins-Tuválkin gives the eagle-and-stars flag a 1938–80 usage period. Joe McMillan notes the unusually long 2:1 proportions shown on the APL website. Jahan Byrne’s 2004 account describes a redesign about twenty-five years earlier, with a more modern eagle on red and no corner stars. The website’s illustrated logo sequence is dated about 1938, 1955, 1980 and 1988. Rosanoski rejects Merchant Ships 1949’s statement that the stars were added in 1916 and the funnel adopted in 1938.

The Ships List assigns A52 to the pre-war period, A51 after the war and A479 from 1996. Rosanoski suggests a possible link between the last change and the proposed NOL sale, without establishing it. Brown’s stars are present but easily overlooked. Brown 1951 expressly specifies a black, not grey, funnel, supported by Jordan; Ocean Ships 1967 specifies dark blue. Another website image also suggests blue, with red darker than expected from the national colours.

A1033 is based on a large actual flag offered on German eBay in May 2009, measuring 1.20 by 2 metres. It is white with a stylised red eagle above heavy dark-blue sans-serif “APL”. Across the top is a dark-blue stripe supported by a narrow green one, with white apparently italic group lettering near the hoist. Jan Mertens read “MOL GROUP” and related it to the 1998 New World Alliance with MOL and Hyundai. Rosanoski instead suggested “NOL”, referring to Neptune Orient’s 1997 acquisition. He also dated the red eagle to about 1955, differing from the company’s description of its first 1938 flag.

The flag recorded as A1094, assigned in the source to the 1938–55 period, has the eagle facing the fly. Photographs of both sides, including the sleeve and a visible toggle, convinced Rosanoski that this was not simply a reversed view. Other flag and logo depictions face the eagle towards the hoist, leaving open whether this was a manufacturing error or a genuine period variant.

The A479 funnel follows the earlier arrangement with the eagle’s head forwards on the port side and aft on starboard, supported by President Hoover and President Monroe photographs. The latter’s flag may show the fly-facing A1094 arrangement, but is too indistinct for certainty.

APL India shows the same orientation in A1034: aft on starboard on 27 August 2003 and forwards on port on 10 December 2007.

APL Hibiscus differs in A562: its port-side eagle faces aft, and it has a narrow black funnel top.