STATE OF ALASKA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION & PUBLIC FACILITIES.

Brown’s A97 apparently follows the Alaska State Flag but omits the large yellow star in the upper fly and changes the arrangement of the Great Bear, also called the Plough. Rosanoski considers the design incorrect and unsupported by ship photographs. The early FOTW portrayal was subsequently replaced by A767.

The quoted official state-flag description gives eight natural-yellow-gold stars on blue matching the blue of the United States flag. Seven form Ursa Major, the Great Bear or Dipper, with its Pointers directed towards Polaris, the eighth star. Blue signifies the evening sky, sea, mountain lakes and local wild flowers; gold signifies mineral wealth. The text stresses Polaris as the constant guide for mariners and others, retains the territorial flag as the State Flag, and preserves older wording anticipating Alaska’s forty-ninth star in the national emblem.

Funnel photographs of Columbia, starboard on 6 September 2007, and Kennicott, port side on 6 July 2008, show the state design. Columbia’s flying flag is indistinct, but a governor’s instruction to lower state flags on all ferries in memory of Capt. Tom Reed on 11 December provides further evidence of its use. Rosanoski’s 2009 comment favours the regular State Flag while acknowledging the lack of a clear photograph; a Malaspina photograph dated 18 May 2013 subsequently confirms it. Mitchell instead draws an incorrect V arrangement of three stars on one arm and five on the other.

A1140 is based on Malaspina’s starboard funnel on 18 May 2013, with the A767 flag also flying.