THE CHINA NAVIGATION CO. LTD.

The livery belongs to the Swire group, initially operating mainly through China Navigation. Earlier flag books often list only Swire. C770 is Pekin’s original funnel in 1873, when she became the first owned ship to arrive in the East.

C9 remained standard until late 1966. The flag is white and red quartered diagonally, with a central blue vertical stripe. Larousse 1930 shows the red triangles’ tips meeting the stripe, while Sampson and other sources show the stripe covering their intersection. A 1993 Wellington flag photograph apparently supports the former arrangement; Nüsse’s Swire table flag supports the latter. The difference is retained rather than reduced to one definitive geometry.

Cargo ships and bulk carriers used C10 after late 1966. It is supported by Pacific Freedom in September 2007, assumed to be an Oldendorff charter to China Navigation, and a starboard Chengtu photograph whose year is malformed in the source. The different treatment from C1201 may reflect a longer charter, but this is only suggested.

Kuala Lampur used C771 while cruising in the early 1960s, replacing it with C773 later that decade.

The pilgrim-vessel funnel used after 1961 bears the Federation of Malaya’s national flag. Ashun is shown with it in a black-and-white photograph.

Coral Princess used C772, with the funnel described as dark blue.

Pacific Chief on 14 May 2009 shows a Swire panel on an Oldendorff grey funnel, with the Oldendorff flag painted on the bridge superstructure. She was chartered from Oldendorff from October 2008; the recorded end date is malformed as 1.7.2.2010.