Entry 1 said:Civil and Merchant Ensign of the People's Republic of China
The symbolism is just like that of the national flag, with four stars symbolizing the working class, peasant class, petit bourgeois and the national bourgeois, and the large star the Communist Party. Except the four classes are dispersed around the "four corners of the world", but still working diligently for the motherland.
The flag was officially named "Chongqing Wuxing Hongqi" or "Five-star Red Flag of Chongqing". It was designed, without the swallowtail, by Communist prisoners in the KMT's Zhazidong prison in Chongqing, who caught wind of the the flag of the new communist state as a certain "Five-star Red Flag", but did not know its actual configuration (OTL so far, but I'm going to make up stories from now on).
When the Nationalist navy ship ROCS Chung King (Chongqing, former HMS. Aurora) went over to the communists, they flew this flag in honour of the prisoners who could never see the real Five-star flag .
The flag resurfaced in 1993, when a Chinese merchant ship was hijacked by pirates, and one of the crew, a veteran of the warship Chongqing, lead a rebellion against the hijackers with this flag as a rally, and took back control of the ship with the help of a Royal Danish Navy ship. To commemorate the valiant act, and the help of the Danes, the Chongqing five-star red flag with a Scandinavian swallowtail was used on the newly designed Chinese civil and merchant ensign this year.
Entry 2 said:Austrian Naval Ensign
Here is my entry. It's supposed to be a naval ensign for Austria. The white and red are taken from the national flag and the black and yellow are Habsburg Colors. I got my inspiration from the Belgian one.
Entry 3 said:
San Marino merchant marine ensign (pennant form) from TL-514
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Excerpts from an MSSE dossier [1], based on information collected by the MIEC [2] of the IDA [3]:
"TL-514 is fairly similar to TL-75 [4], TL-132 and TL-772. It is speculated it might be an offshoot of either of these three timelines.
At some point in the late 19th or 20th century, the government of the Most Serene Republic of San Marino decided to enter the shipping business. Landlocked, and with barely an army, it was clear to everyone a Sanmarinese navy would remain an impossibility. However, enterprising politicians and businessmen saw economic potential in a tiny merchant marine. It was argued a few freighters could earn extra cash for the national budget by ferrying various goods on both chartered and regular lines. To this end, funds were raised, the Maritime Shipping Company of San Marino was established, and eventually a few freighters were bought. To this day, the Republic of San Marino in TL-514 still operates its own merchant marine of no more than 5 international freighters. The ships are registered at Italian or Maltese ports.
Over the decades, the San Marino merchant marine ensign has undergone several variations. The latest iteration was created and approved in the 1970s. It uses a pennant shape and contains heraldic charges depicted in the national coat of arms, but in a highly stylised form, with simplified modern contours."
Notes:
[1] - Multiverse Sociopolitical Survey Expedition
[2] - Multiverse Institute Exploration Corps
[3] - InterDimensional Alliance (a sort of multiversal UN/NATO)
[4] - OTL
