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Riverton Yacht Club (U.S.)

New Jersey

image by Miles Li, 28 July 2022

Riverton Yacht Club
Officers' flags (1891)

See also:

Riverton Yacht Club

On the 14th of April 1865, Abraham Lincoln was shot in the head. He died the next day.

On the 1st of July 1865, the Riverton Yacht Club was formed. With such a brutal attack still in everyone's mind, it's no surprise that the club selected a stars and stripes pattern.

Fall 1865 the US Congress determined that no-one else could adopt a stars and stripes pattern, possibly to avoid an avalanche of such flags. Congress did not forbid the already existing burgee of the RYC. Thus, the Riverton has a really unique burgee on their ships.

image located by Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 12 July 2022

The club reports that originally, they used a swallow-tail design, but somewhere in the eighties of the 19th century they switched to a pennant. I've found an example in Lloyds yacht register of 1902-1903.

I found an image in Manning 1901, and though the club claims they had by then long switched to a pennant, apparently they forgot to tell the yacht club list. Thus here we have an original two-tailed burgee, with the six file distribution of the stars.
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 28 July 2022

image located by Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 12 July 2022

I did find entries in Manning's: Burgee that clearly does not show two tails, but someone forgot to tell the artist how it should look as a pennant; commodore and vice-commodore; showing what the reason is for not putting one dark colour on top of another.

Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 12 July 2022

Officers' flags (1891)

Commodore

image located by Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 12 July 2022

Vice-commodore

image located by Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 12 July 2022