Flagship

A flagship is the ship used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships. The term originates from the custom of the commanding officer (usually, but not always, a flag officer) to fly a distinguishing flag.

Used in this way, "flagship" is fundamentally a temporary designation; the flagship is wherever the admiral is flying his flag. However, admirals have always needed additional facilities; a meeting room large enough to hold all the captains of the fleet, and a place for the admiral's staff to make plans and draw up orders.

In the age of sailing ships, the flagship was typically a first-rate; the aft of one of the three decks would become the admiral's quarters and staff offices. This can be seen today on HMS Victory, the flagship of Admiral Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar, now at Portsmouth, England.

In the 20th century, ships became large enough that most types could accommodate commander and staff, and during World War II admirals would often prefer a faster ship over the largest one. Increasing communications and computing requirements have resulted in the design of specialized command and control ships to serve as flagship. Thus, today the flagship of a fleet is usually the best-equipped, and most famous ship whence orders come.

Private Ship

A private ship is a warship, which has no flag officer on board, and thus is not a flag ship.^[1]

Flagship in language

As with so many other naval terms, flagship has crossed over into common parlance, where it means the most important or leading member of a group. It has also come to be an adjective describing the most prominent or highly touted product, location, or service among those offered by a company. It now has common derivations such as the "flagship product" of a manufacturing company or "flagship store" of a retail chain.

Broadcast stations

See also: Flagship (television)

A flagship station is also the "home" station of a broadcast network (radio or TV). It can be the station that produces the lion's share of material for the network, or the station in the parent company's home city or both. The term dates back to the mid-century years of broadcasting when the local stations themselves produced programs for the network, as PBS does today.

For example, the flagship stations of the ABC, NBC and CBS television networks (and ABC and CBS radio networks) are their owned and operated outlets in New York City. While a handful of PBS stations, including WGBH, KQED and WNET provide the lion's share of the web's programming, the TV industry has long given the "flagship" appelation to WNET, dating back to its years as the key outlet for PBS's predecessor, National Educational Television.

In sports broadcasting, the "flagship" is the sports team's primary station in the team's home market. For example, WGN radio and television are the flagships of the Chicago Cubs baseball team, which also has an extensive radio network.

Automotive

The term flagship is also used to describe the top or main vehicle manufactured by automotive marque. These vehicles are usually, but not always, the most expensive, prestigious and largest vehicles in the line-up.

While the flagship is always the most prestigious vehicle in a company's line-up, it may not always be the most expensive, or the largest. The Lincoln Town Car, for example, while considered the flagship of the Lincoln division, ranges roughly $6,000 below the Navigator in price. In the case of Cadillac the DTS flagship sedan is not only priced roughly $11,000 below the Escalade but it is also smaller, in terms of overall length and width, than the Escalade ESV.

However, the term is most often applied to sedans and usually only those manufactured luxury automobile marques.

Fiction

The meaning of "flagship" has been loosely interpreted in works of fiction as well. For example, the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) in Star Trek: The Next Generation is often referred to as the flagship of the United Federation of Planets, even though it does not carry commanding officers of higher rank than the captains aboard other ships. This is because, in Star Trek, the term seems to mean the ship that represents the fleet as a whole and hosts the most advanced technology and finest crew, though not necessarily the crew of the greatest rank.

Darth Vader's flagship is the Super Star Destroyer Executor. Although Lord Vader is not an admiral, he has a special military rank in the Empire that makes him answerable only to the Emperor, and apparently all the officers in the Navy are under his command when needed. Vader uses the Executor as a flagship, leading a fleet of other ships from the Executor's bridge. The ship is not depicted as literally carrying a flag.

In the PlayStation 2 game Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War, the main characters find themselves as part of a makeshift fleet fighting to stop the war between Osea and Yuktobania. The flagship of their fleet is the aircraft carrier Kestrel, simply because it is the most important ship in the fleet.

In the Games Workshop game Battlefleet Gothic, an admiral of at least one race must be present on the most expensive warship, regardless of the player's wishes.

In the computer game Homeworld 2, the main Vaygr command ship/construction shipyard is appropriately labelled a "flagship".

University campuses

The phrase flagship campus or flagship university is often used with reference to state university systems in the United States, which often comprise numerous campuses in widely-separated locations. In this context, flagship means "fully mature public universities". Likely to be the first established university in its respective system, a flagship campus is often a land-grant school dating from the wave of state university foundings that followed the Morrill Act of 1863.^[2]

Fulfilling the naval analogy, it is often (though not always^[3]) the site of the administrative headquarters for the system. In addition, in college athletics, it is likely to be referred to by the state name, for instance, the University of Arkansas is referred to in sports contexts as simply Arkansas while the other UA campuses have their city name appended to them.

According to Robert Berdahl, former Berkeley chancellor, the phrase "flagship" came into existence in the 1950s when the Morrill Act schools were joined by newer campuses built in a wave of postwar expansion of state university system.^[2]

Berdahl commented on the prestige and elite status of flagship campuses in the following:

...those of us in "systems" of higher education are frequently actively discouraged from using the term "flagship" to refer to our campuses because it is seen as hurtful to the self-esteem of colleagues at other institutions in our systems. The use of the term is seen by some as elitist and boastful. It is viewed by many, in the context of the politics of higher education, as "politically incorrect." ... Only in the safe company of alumni is one permitted to use the term.^[2]

Nevertheless, it is common for state university officials to use the term "flagship" in official contexts, e.g. "As the system's flagship campus, [UMass-]Amherst draws from throughout the Commonwealth, the nation and the world;"^[4] "It is a pleasure to report to the General Assembly on the accomplishments and initiatives of the State's Flagship University."^[5]

Photographic Equipment

The term flagship has also become adopted in photography. A flagship camera, like that in the automotive industry, is the leading product of the brand, representing the overall technological level of a company. Most famous of these flagship cameras include; The Canon 1-series(1D, 1Ds, 1vhs); Nikon single digit (F4, F5, F6, D1 and D2 series.^{[citation needed]}

References

1. ^ p670 Kemp, Peter "The Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea", pub Oxford University Press, 1976, reprinted 1992. ISBN 0-19-282084-2
2. ^ ^{a b c} Robert M. Berdahl, Chancellor, University of California, Berkeley (1998-10-08). The Future of Flagship Universities. Texas A&M University. Retrieved on 2006-09-22.
3. ^ The University of California provides a counterexample; its flagship is the Berkeley campus, but its system headquarters are located in a non-campus office in the city of Oakland.
4. ^ David K. Scott (2001). Strategic Action FY'97 - FY'01 III. A Vision of the Future: Reinventing the Dream. University of Massachusetts Amherst, Office of the Chancellor. Retrieved on 2006-09-22.
5. ^ Dr. C. D. Mote, Jr, President, University of Maryland, College Park (2006). Testimony to the Maryland General Assembly. Retrieved on 2006-09-22.

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