SOUTHAMPTON, ISLE OF WIGHT & SOUTH OF ENGLAND ROYAL MAIL STEAM PACKET PLC

The flag is quartered diagonally: white above, green at the fly, red below and blue at the hoist. Its colours commemorate Sapphire, Emerald, Ruby and Pearl, the four steamers in the merged fleet of 1861.

Packet funnels were buff; excursion steamers used white, said to begin with Balmoral 1 in 1900, although two earlier sources already show white and may be printing errors. Black tops were added to excursion funnels in 1930 and throughout the fleet in 1931. Buff gave way to white in 1932 to distinguish the ships from Southern Railway’s buff-funnelled steamers.

Red with a black top became universal in 1936 to distinguish the vessels from James Dredging & Contracting ships, giving the Red Funnel name. Merchant Ships instead dates the buff-to-red change to the 1935 silver jubilee. The Bournemouth vessels had earlier retained red and black until the First World War before reverting to packet livery. Coastal Ships calls the red dark, while photographs look a normal shade. Yellow replacing the flag’s red lower quarter in several books is identified as erroneous.

This is presumably the Solent logo. Its colours and direction vary between photographs and positions on vessels. Norris Castle’s port view shows reversed colours and the point forward; its starboard view is mirrored to point forward as well. Cowes Castle has the S40 funnel, with differing logo directions on hull and forward superstructure. Double-ended Netley Castle’s narrow funnels lack the logo, which appears on the side and superstructure with its point to the viewer’s right. Rosanoski notes that port/starboard interpretation and consistent direction are not straightforward.