...; transferred from the Ministerie van Marine (Department of the Navy), The Hague, to the museum, 1883

Object number: NG-MC-1208

Indonesian pirate flag. It is red with a white vertical bar near the hoist and a white crown in the field.

This flag was captured on 3 September 1822 by Lieutenant H.A. van Karnebeek from the third benteng of Tontoli on the North-West coast of Celebes, which was in the hands of pirates. The expedition was led by Captain A.W. de Man in the 46-gun frigate Melampus (built in the United Kingdom, taken into Dutch service in 1815, decommissioned in the Dutch East Indies in 1823).¹¹A.J. Vermeulen, De schepen van de Koninklijke Marine en die der gouvernementsmarine 1814-1962, The Hague 1962, p. 11.

J.M. Obreen et al., handwritten inventory list for items 944 to 1431, 1884, manuscript in HNA 476 RMA, inv. no. 1089, no. 1208; A.J. Vermeulen, De schepen van de Koninklijke Marine en die der gouvernementsmarine 1814-1962, The Hague 1962, p. 11; M. van den Brandhof, Vlaggen, vaandels en standaarden van het Rijksmuseum. Een geïllustreerde catalogus, Amsterdam 1977, no. 202

J. van der Vliet, 2016, 'anonymous, Flag, Indonesian Archipelago, in or before 1822', in J. van der Vliet and A. Lemmers (eds.), Navy Models in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20054180