USS Great Lakes Fleet Inc. / Great Lakes Fleet Inc.

The U228 funnel’s silver shade is confirmed by a photograph of Roger Blough. Its flag has a red hoist triangle and a horizontal upper band above white. Jan Mertens initially described the upper band as green, leading to the FOTW U272 illustration. Rosanoski instead read the photographs as black and found black in six Know Your Ships editions. He initially reserved judgement because of an eBay flag report, then found clearer chart photographs. Mertens acknowledged that his later message and the eBay photographs supported black; the green illustration was amended. The suggested connection of red, white and black with steelmaking remained only a recollection, not an established symbolism.

The black–white–red flag is documented on Great Lakes ships and in a reported flag bought at Duluth in the 1990s, approximately 7 feet 9 inches by 4 feet 7 inches and made of nylon. Its precise origin remained unclear. Know Your Ships 2007 instead shows the flag of the managers, Key Lakes Inc., cross-referenced to Keystone Shipping Co. and Chas. Kurz & Co.; Rosanoski therefore suggests the earlier flag may have ceased to be used.