Flag at Half Staff

[FatBaldGuy]

CalMeacham, I was in the Boy Scouts in the late 50’s/early 60’s and I never remember half staff/half mast meaning anything other than halfway between top and bottom. Until today I had never even heard the definition meaning of “one flag’s height from the top.”

[CalMeacham]

Just noticed that one of my cites is the same as zut’s. Sorry about that. Credit where it’s due.

[David_Simmons]

I’m with CalMecham on this. When I was young anthing below the top of the flag pole was “half staff” and the usual distance of a flag-width or so. I have no idea when the change occurred.

[Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party]

When the Union Flag is flown at half mast at the village war memorial the flag is lowered one flag width from the top of the mast. I have seen some flown literally half way down the mast, however, so there doesn’t seem to be a consensus as to which is correct.

[Nic2004]

I have to be a little vauge on this and I’m sorry for that. A short time back I was listening to a show about old sailing ships in the glory days of naval warfare. In a brief section of the show they stated that , despite appearances, the masts of a shipt were not a single pole but three end-toend. IIRC, the top-most section was the mizzenmast (sp?) and it is were the flag was flown.
If I remember this correctly, then the half of the upper-most mast is the measure of the lowering and if lowered to half-mast (of the upper third of the mast assembly) it wold certainly be in the upper section of the mast overall.

[Scruloose]

For US Navy & Coast Guard commands, everything you’ve ever wanted to know about flags and pennants can be found in NTP-13(B). For half-masting:

b. Display of the national ensign from various flagpole configurations
is explained herein. The right side of a flagpole is determined by looking
from the main entrance of the headquarters building to the pole:
(1) Polemast - Flown from the peak. If peak is equipped with two
halyards, flown from right side. Half-mast position is three-fourths of the
way to the peak.
(2) Polemast with Crosstree - Flown at peak of pole. When at
half-mast, the bottom of union portion shall be even with crosstree. If
displayed with foreign ensign(s), the U.S. national ensign shall be displayed
from the outermost halyard on right hand crosstree.
(3) Polemast with Gaff - Flown at peak of gaff. Half-mast position
is half way between top and bottom of gaff. When displayed with foreign
ensign(s), the U.S. national ensign is flown on right hand side of gaff.
(4) Polemast with Crosstree and Gaff - This is commonly called a
“yacht club mast”. Displayed from the gaff. When displayed with foreign
national ensign(s), display U.S. national ensign from outermost halyard on
right hand crosstree.

http://www.navair.navy.mil/index.cfm?fuseaction=cmc.documentDeliver&document_id=148
(.pdf warning)

Plus, an interesting history of half-masting:

According to W. G. Perrin’s British Flags, the custom of flying a flag at half-mast as a sign of mourning was already established by at least 1612, when it is recorded that the British ship Heart’s Ease lowered her ensign to “hang over the poop” after her captain was killed while exploring for the Northwest Passage in what is now Canada. The practice was embodied in Royal Navy regulations by the last half of the 17th century. It seems most probable that half-masting comes from an even older practice of giving a ship a slovenly appearance as a sign of bereavement. L. P. Lovette’s classic Naval Customs, Traditions and Usage, first published in 1934, explains that, at one time, ships in mourning would droop their sails, slacken the rigging, leave rope ends trailing, and “cockbill” their yards, that is, arrange them askew at varying angles rather than having them neatly squared in seamanlike fashion. Royal Navy ships are known to have cockbilled their yards as recently as 1908. While there are many other explanations of the significance of half-masting, some of them quite poetic (for instance, that lowering the ensign leaves space for “the invisible flag of death”), these seem to be without any historic basis.

From here: http://home.earthlink.net/~mcmillanj/customs/customs.html