G. & J. BURNS LTD.

B492 is the original sailing-ship house flag. Shipping Wonders of the World says Samuel Cunard adopted it for his British & North American Royal Mail Steam Packet Co. in recognition of George Burns’s help, and that Burns returned the compliment in 1880 by adopting B226, based on Cunard’s new flag. Loughran treats that connection only as a possible explanation. LJC 1885 also gives the flag for Glasgow, Belfast & Liverpool Steamers, apparently a Burns trading name. B226 follows the National Maritime Museum’s Burns & Laird flag, with the emblem towards the hoist.