British East India Company's Flag

The British East India Company's Flag is a ship cosmetic in Windrose used as a disguise to mimic a merchant ensign. Unlocked through a Privateer Style Book.

In-Game Description

Sometimes it pays to pretend to be someone else…

How to Apply

Sail to a player-built Wharf and dock the ship there. Approach the Wharf, open the Manage Ship menu, switch to the Customization tab, and select British East India Company's Flag from the Flag option list. Customisation itself does not cost coin once the design is unlocked.

Where to Find

Unlocked by reading Style Book: Privateer Flag Designs, a one-time use book sold by the Brethren of the Coast Provisioner for 10 Guinea.

Reading the book adds every flag in that set to the Wharf's flag option list permanently for the character that read it. Other characters in a shared base must each read their own copy.

Properties

Historical Note

The flag references the real British East India Company, founded in 1600 and active until 1874, whose merchant ships flew a distinctive ensign of red and white horizontal stripes with the Union Jack in the canton. Period accounts describe the trick the in-game description hints at: pirates would raise a Company flag at a distance to make a target ship think it was meeting a friendly merchant or a Royal Navy escort, then run up their own colours only after closing to musket range.

Tips

• Flag changes are visible to other players in PvE and PvP, so the design you fly is also a signal of which faction you currently care about.

• Designs are bound to the character that read the matching Style Book, not to a specific ship, so all of a character's owned ships can use any unlocked flag.

• A flag does not affect ship stats. It is purely cosmetic, so swap it freely without worrying about a damage or speed penalty.