flag n The pennant of a sealing vessel used to mark the ownership and position on the ice of a pile of seal 'pelts'; PAN n: PAN FLAG.
   1873 Maritime Mo i, 259 [The sealers] kill and 'sculp' all the seals within two or three miles of the ship, and then, piling them in heaps marked with the flag of the vessel, they are left to be hauled in at a favorable moment. 1924 ENGLAND 245, 282 With the decks a bristle of gaffs and flags, and in as near silence as the engine permitted, the Terra Nova rapidly bore down on the herd... The long monotony was broken by our chancing on a huge pan of sculps with a Job Brothers flag on it. 1936 SMITH 52 At 12.30 the order was given, and all hands were out with the flagpoles and flags. You could jump on a whitecoat from the ship's side-sticks if you wished to do so. It was snowing a little, and we could not see very far, but all hands started panning and, in a short while the ice was red with blood, and the Neptune steaming around picking up the pans. 1972 BROWN 33 The pelts would be collected together on ice pans big enough to keep them safe, and a flag stuck on each pan to mark ownership. The flags had distinctive colours and were also numbered.

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