Vintage Maersk Shipping Company Triton house flag pennant. Light blue polyester ground with a white semi-opaque seven-point star in center. Good, unused condition. Measures 19 inches X 41 inches.
HISTORY: Based on a letter from A.P. Møller’s father, Captain Peter Mærsk Møller, the seven-pointed star logo came into existence in 1886 when his wife, Anna Møller, accompanied him on a vessel and became seriously ill. While praying for his wife’s well-being, Captain Mærsk Møller saw one star on that cloudy night and was filled with hope. In a letter he later wrote to Anna, he explained the symbolism of the Maersk star, which by then was on the funnel of his first steamship, the S.S. Laura. The letter read: “The little star on the funnel is a reminder of the evening I prayed for you so dejectedly and anxiously, asking for the sign that I might see in the grey, overcast sky, a reminder the that the Lord hears our prayers.”
The second part of our logo is the light blue background behind the white star: the Maersk Blue. The exact origin of that colour is unknown. The white star on a light blue background was first used when Captain Peter Mærsk Møller bought his first steamship in 1886; the LAURA. When Captain Peter Mærsk Møller and his son A.P. Møller established the Steamship Company Svendborg (the forerunner for A.P. Møller - Mærsk A/S) in 1904, the white star was retained as the funnel emblem for the company’s vessels.
