PACIFICA SHIPPING (1985) LTD.

The initial funnel, used in 1983–85, was photographed on Spirit of Free Enterprise. Its P was shortened between August and October 1983 while the wave stayed in place; the funnel’s boundary with the superstructure was difficult to define. Chief Officer Dereck Boyes designed an early royal-blue flag with a narrow yellow horizontal band and a block P rising from it. A possible smaller bow-like shape may instead be a smudge on a carbon-copy drawing. The flag flew over the Christchurch office but the ship declined to fly it, and its official status is doubtful. Rosanoski’s later reconstruction rests on sparse records of an actual flag he had handled.

A dark-blue funnel with a white flying bird was painted in January 1985; the new flag was first seen on 5 February. The funnel bird is viewed obliquely from above, showing its head, with the lower wing appearing shorter. Its upper wing originally almost touched the funnel top. The flag bird was more curved, seen directly from above and set nearer the hoist, confirmed by an actual flag. Spirit of Progress in November 1993 shows more space above the bird and a mirrored starboard emblem, flying forward on both sides. The bird is called a seagull in The Log, though shipboard informants were uncertain.

After the Skeggs acquisition the Pacifica flag was flown with the Skeggs flag, initially above it. Skeggs flags were temporarily absent while replacements were made in 1986 and again in 1989, but recorded in late 1990. They ceased being flown by the ships after January 1991 surveys while remaining at the office. Later photographs show both possible orders, suggesting no fixed precedence. By 1999 a Heino Winter flag was also flown following a sale-and-charter-back arrangement described first as three ships and then as one.

The shore flag seen in August 1991 is white, in 1:2 proportions, with a blue panel carrying white pacifica lettering. The panel’s top follows the raised outline of the middle letters. A white bird outlined blue flies from its fly end, viewed from below and one side, with the nearer upper wing longer and the side of its head visible. The ships used reversed colours, observed in September 1991 as P520, also apparently 1:2.

Mitchell supplies an unnamed line drawing; the funnel’s vessel source is unknown.