Mathies shows G.H. Wappäus’s flag as white with a broad green border, or equivalently green with a large white panel, bearing the red Hamburg castle. Meyer describes a red three-towered Hamburg gate on white with green edging. Rosanoski cautions that Meyer cites Mathies and may not provide independent corroboration. He favours this account but considers the competing painted version worth recording.
Schneider’s three 2012 illustrations document the competing flags collectively: white with a blue border, a red nineteenth-century Hamburg castle and black SDG beneath; white with a green border and red castle; and white with a red cross pattée. The reported proportions are approximately 11:12. The blue-bordered SDG and cross flags come from Lorenz Petersen’s 1854 painting, shown in Hamburgmuseum. Enlargements confirm blue and SDG, whereas the monochrome reproduction leaves the lettering unclear; the painted castle also seems to have an open gate. Schneider’s corrected account places the SDG flag on the foremast, the cross flag on the mizzen, name pennants on the mainmast and the Hamburg ensign aft. Earlier correspondence reverses some mast positions and tentatively reads Flora, while the later summary names Gloria. The painting postdates the father’s 1836 death and fleet disposal, so the accuracy and source of its retrospective details remain uncertain.
SDG is tentatively interpreted as Soli Deo Gloria, “Glory to God alone”, in view of the family’s Protestant background and heraldic motto. The cited genealogy actually prints the motto in English as “In God is All”, and the correspondence recognises that difficulty. The interpretation is plausible in the source, not proved by the painting alone.
The cross flag’s purpose is unknown. Schneider suggests an earlier form of the son’s flag or a Hanseatic cross flag; Rosanoski instead identifies a cross pattée and distinguishes the later Hanseatic award with a city-arms medallion. A similar flag recorded for C.J. Reidel in 1869–1879 is explicitly considered unrelated. The son’s use of a cross suggests a possible family connection without establishing it.
Georg Heinrich, also written Hinrich, Wappäus became a Hamburg merchant in 1805 after a career at sea. He took over the Jörst linen business in 1810 and bought his first ship in 1818, developing Hamburg–Caribbean trade. His stepson J.W.A. Lorenzen represented the business at La Guaria from the mid-1820s to the mid-1830s. The fleet grew from five ships in 1825 to thirteen in 1827. On Wappäus’s death in 1836 the business was liquidated and the ten remaining ships sold.
Keep the explicit scope label independent; no alias or company identity is inferred.