The History of the "Racing Stripe" Emblem and Brand Identity for World Sea Services and Coast Guards
Part II: The Rest of the World b road, others fo llowed th e United States Coast G uard 's example. The introduction of th e 200-nauticalmile economic zo ne in the 1970s, ecological concerns regarding oil spills and similar challenges, and the prevalence of drug trafficki ng by sea have led to ch e establishment of numerous coast guards or like services aro und the globe. When US Coast G uard vessels and aircraft were, o ne by one, painted with the Racing Stripe and the public began to recognize the marked vessels as part of the Coast G uard, only a few nations fo llowed the Am ericans' exampl e a t Ers t. By 2000 , however, m any coast guard services- especially in Latin America, the European U nion , Eastern Europe, Turkey, India, Pakistan , Japan , South Korea, South East Asia, and the Pacific island states-had introduced the slas h to th eir vessels, while Australia and New Zealand , Africa, and th e M iddle East h ave not fo llowed suit. Lookin g thro ugh the 200 9/2010 edition of the wo rld-renowned Jane's Fighting Ships, on e can count sixty-o ne nations that have introduced slash sym bols to law-enfo rcem ent ships. Just to the north, the Canadian coast guard (CCG) introduced a white slash to its polar icebreakers, the Pierre Radisson and Franklin, in 1978. The Canadian coast guard works in close coop era tion with its counterpart in the Uni ted States bu t is quite differen t in its structure and missio n. This o rganizatio n o riginated in the service fleet of the Department ofTranspo rr at O ttawa, which was fo rmed in its p resent state in the 1960s. The women an d men of this
A
by Christian Ostersehlte, PhD
Sweden's Coast Guard
service wear unifo rms, but they operate on merchant mari ne standards. The Swedish coast guard adopted the US-style racing stripe early o n . O riginally a m odest beach patrol establish ed in 1638, after Wo rld Wa r II it began operating a fleet of customs patrol vessels under the sup ervisio n of the Financial Ministry at Stockholm . In 1976, the service was transferred to the Ministry of Commerce and was already displaying the slash on its vessels, wh ose hulls were painted light grey and m arked with a dark blue double slash. In 1988 , the Swedish coast guard was reorganized. Today, it is overseen by the M inistry of D efense and m aintains a distinctive police profile. Th e livery was also ch anged. The slash rem ained, but now in Swedish national colors: yellow with a brighter blue backgro und The German wo rd "Kustenwache," or "coast guard," is inscribed on a number of types of governmen t vessels, but the Germ an coast guard is not a single authority like the US Coast G uard, but ra ther a loosely knit m arine patrol network establi sh ed in
1994 . These vessels all display a slash in German n ational colors-black, red and gold-with different hull colo rs, depending on the agency in which the individ ual vessel serves. The marine branch of the Federal Police (B undespolizei), a service of the M inistry of the Interior in Berlin, was fo unded as a border patrol service in 19 51 m odeled after the military, but, today, after many evolutions, it now operates more like the state police. Its vessels have a light-blue hull. The m arine branch of the Federal Customs Service (Wasserzoll), an agency of the M inistry of Finance, has a large fleet of green-hulled vessels that operate bo th in coastal and inland waters. The German seagoing customs service has a history dating back to the nineteenth century. C ustoms fu nctions were executed by the individual states until the government in Berlin took over in 191 9. The Water and Shipping Administration is a civilian au thority of the M inistry
Canadian Coast Guard offshore patrol vessel Leonard J . C owley
Germany's Kustenwache is made up of multiple government agencies. Vessels with black hulls are part of the Federal Waterways and Shipping Administration.
SEA HISTORY 139, SUMMER 201 2
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