Sydney and Ballarat celebrate the Queen’s Birthday in Plymouth

25 June 2009
HMAS Sydney and HMAS Ballarat recently “Dressed Ship” in Plymouth, to celebrate the official birthday of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II.

The term ‘Dress Ship’ describes the traditional decorating of ships with flags in honour of special occasions or anniversaries. During the recent Dress Ship, Sydney and Ballarat flew all the flags and pennants of the signal codes.

Flags and pennants of the signal codes represent letters of the alphabet, and a tradition existed up until 1889 that the junior captain of a fleet or squadron was responsible for drawing up the order in which flags were to be worn. During this period the designated Captain often choose to spell out special messages with his flag and pennant selection. In more modern times the arrangement of the flags and pennants is designed simply to be the most colourful and as symmetrical as possible to create a bright visual display across the whole ship. The only flags carried on board Sydney and Ballarat that are not used as part of the Dress Ship are the flags of foreign nations.

The celebration of Her Majesty’s birthday across Australia and by Australian ships in foreign ports is one of three annual events that the RAN uniformly Dresses Ship, the others being 1 January to celebrate the anniversary of the establishment of the Commonwealth of Australia and on Australia Day.