The Coast Guard ensign. 



of such cutter or boat may fire at, or into, 

 such vessel, after such pendant and ensign 

 has been hoisted and a gun fired by such 

 cutter as a signal . . ." 



Secretary of the Treasury OHver Wol- 

 cott described the ensign and pennant in a 

 letter to his collectors in 1799 as "consist- 

 ing of sixteen perpendicular stripes, alter- 

 nate red and white, the Union of the 

 Ensign to be the Arms of the U. S. in dark 



blue on a white field." The stripes stood 

 for the States that comprised the Nation 

 at that time. The original 13 States were 

 commemorated by an arch of 13 blue stars 

 in a white field. The only change in the 

 ensign was made in 1927 when the Coast 

 Guard seal of shield and anchors was 

 centered on the middle of the seventh 

 red stripe. This distinctive emblem on 

 the ensign had been authorized in 1910. 



