SILJA LINE OYJ.

This flag appears to belong to the period when vessels retained the consortium partners’ funnels, with Silja on their hulls from the early 1970s. Former Svea ships adopted Johnson Line funnels in 1981, retaining them until ownership passed to Silja in 1992. Holmia is an exception in the evidence: a 1971 black-and-white photograph apparently shows a yellow funnel with black top and a band system of five white and dark bands interrupted by white bearing a dark S; the 1976 ferry-fleet account nevertheless confirms continued partner funnels without mentioning Holmia.

Cap badges suggest an early white flag with a very broad horizontal blue band, a white cross throughout, and an indistinct white circle bearing a blue S.

Brown 1995 gives alternative funnels with the animal head, described elsewhere as a seal. Rosanoski says Brown points the head the wrong way, apparently following a starboard sighting: photographs show it facing forward to starboard and aft to port. The S648 flag has the head outlined black on white, facing the hoist.

Rosanoski suggests that Al Fisher’s flag might have been intended for shore use, since named flags were commonly used that way; he had no actual sighting to settle it.

This funnel follows a port-side photograph of Silja Festival on 22 June 2004.

This funnel follows Finnjet photographed from port on 11 September 2005.

Silja Symphony’s variant has a double lighter-blue outline to the head, the lines separated by white. The seal faces aft on both sides in the port and starboard photographic evidence.