ELDER DEMPSTER LINES LTD.

The crowned flag derives from African Steam Ship’s 1852 Royal Charter. The website’s drawing and actual flag differ in crown colouring; comparison with the museum flag dated about 1951 suggests a crown change. E38 is also assigned in early sources to African Steam Ship, Belge Maritime du Congo and Imperial Direct West India Mail.

The Ships List dates African Steam Ship’s A469 funnel to 1852–64, followed by A468 to 1932. It gives E38 for Elder Dempster in 1887–90 and E236 for the contradictory period “1890-1889”. Only funnels are supplied for parts of this chronology; corresponding flags, explicitly E236’s, are assumed.

Reed shows a more tapered flag with a smaller cross and crown.

This is the fleet commodore’s flag, possibly no longer in use by the 1970 account.