MOSS HUTCHISON LINE LTD.

The combined signal joined Moss’s red pennant, with MH added, to Hutchison’s blue-white-red vertical tricolour with a natural-coloured thistle in the white stripe. The pennant carries a white Maltese cross with M and H on either side; one account leaves a possible blue or white border unclear. Marine News dates first use to 7 April 1934 and says all ships flew the pennant, with the double signal for Mediterranean service. Stewart instead assigns the combined flags to the Spanish Peninsula fleet and the pennant alone to Mediterranean vessels. Brown 1951 and another account restrict the combination or tricolour to French ports. These differences remain unresolved. Sources also vary between a long pennant and one closer in shape to the companion flag.

The National Maritime Museum flag is dated about 1955, with dimensions 863.8 by 1855.8 mm; it provides Bakker’s FOTW version.

The line retained its livery after the 1972 P&O reorganisation.