Last modified: 2013-12-13 by ian macdonald
Keywords: navy | cruzeiro | commander | fleet | chief of staff | admiralty | star (white) |
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image by Željko
Heimer
I just received from the Brazilian naval attaché in Paris the personal flag of the Commander of the Navy. [Image
above based on the one provided with this message.--Ed.]
Armand Noel du Payrat, 11 May 2001
The new flags provided by Armand are necessitated by the 1999 establishment of a unified
Ministry of Defense and the abolition of the posts of Minister of the Navy, Minister of the
Army, Minister of
Aeronautics, and Minister of the General Staff of the Armed Forces. At the same time, each
service was given
a commander to exercise the service-peculiar command functions previously vested in the service
ministers.
Joseph McMillan, 11 May 2001
image by Željko
Heimer
Source: Album des Pavillons, 2000
.
image by Željko
Heimer
Source: Album des Pavillons, 2000
image by Željko Heimer
image by Željko
Heimer
Source: Album des Pavillons, 2000
The Cruzeiro flag defaced in the canton with three white stars set in
points of an imagined isosceles trangle pointing up, in the lower hoist
quarter a slanted white anchor, and in the lower fly quarter a single white
star.
Željko Heimer
image by Joseph McMillan and
Željko
Heimer
In figure 24 of the
MB Cerimonial, there is the flag of the Chief of the Navy (Patrono da Marinha), new to me.
In canton, the flag bears the coat of arms of Marquês de Tamandaré, and the site gives a description in words of
this coat of arms.
Santiago Dotor, 20 March 2001
The Patrono da Marinha is not the chief of the navy but the "patron of the navy" in the sense of a patron saint. The term refers to Admiral Joaquim Marques Lisboa, Marquês de Tamandaré (1807-1897). He is referred to in one item I found as o Nelson brasileiro, the Brazilian Nelson. Article 7-2-4 of the Brazilian Navy Ceremonial Code provides that "On Sailors' Day (Dia do Marinheiro), December 13, units of the Navy that are presenting the Tamandaré Medal of Merit conduct a ceremony consisting of the hoisting of the flag of the Patron of the Navy, the playing by the band of the "Exórdio do Patrono da Marinha," the firing of a 19 gun salute by each station designated to fire salutes, and finally the lowering of the flag of the Patron of the Navy. While the flag of the Patron of the Navy remains hoisted, only the following other flags may be flown at the mainmast or main flagpole:
The blazon of the arms provided in the
MB Cerimonial is:
On a samnitic shield quarterly (1) or a cross of the Order of Christ throughout; (2) gules five flowers or; (3) argent a tree vert fructed or; (4) azure twelve stars in cross argent.Joseph McMillan, 25 March 2001
According to the Brazilian Navy journal Revista Marítima Brasileira, 117:4/6, Apr-Jun 1997, page 18, the coat of arms on this flag was approved for the solemn commemoration of the 150th anniversary of Tamandaré's birth in 1957. There would have been no "ancient" Tamandaré arms because the admiral did not come from a noble family. He was born Joaquim Marques Lisboa in Rio Grande, State of Rio Grande do Sul, on 13 December 1807. He entered the Royal Midshipmen's Academy (Academia Real dos Guarda-Marinhas) in 1814 and went to sea in the frigate Niterói of the new Brazilian Navy in 1823. Marques Lisboa was promoted to chefe de esquadra (rear admiral) in 1854, to vice admiral in 1856, and ennobled as Barão de Tamandaré in 1860. (The Brazilian Empire had only life peerages, no hereditary titles.) He was elevated to viscount in 1865 and commanded the Brazilian naval forces in the War of the Triple Alliance against Paraguay. He was promoted to admiral in 1867 and elevated to count. In 1879, at the age of 72, the admiral was credited with saving Emperor Dom Pedro II from drowning. On his 80th birthday in 1887 he was made Marquês de Tamandaré. He retired from the Navy after the 1889 revolution and died on 20 March 1897.
Tamandaré was originally buried at Botafogo Beach in Rio de Janeiro, near the naval headquarters. In December 1994, however,
his remains were moved, in accordance with his own wishes, to his home city of Rio Grande. The urns containing his remains and those
of his wife were covered by small Imperial Brazilian flags during the transfer, reflecting Tamandaré's wish:
"I want to go covered by the flag I defended all my life." When the urns arrived at the new grave in Rio Grande, the Patron of the Navy flag
was hoisted on the monument.
Joseph McMillan, 12 June 2001
