Swedish East India Company A cargo tally, printed by William Milburn in 1813, shows the following. The ships used by the Swedish East India Company. According to the first charter, the SOIC's ships were only allowed to use the Swedish merchant flag, a rectangular blue flag with a yellow cross. With the renewal of the charter in 1746, the company was allowed to add its name cypher, or monogram, to the flag in order to distinguish the ships from other trading vessels. Soon after that, the ships of the SOIC started to use a fork-tailed or swallow-tailed flag. The intention was that the ship
Flag of Sweden civil ministries fly square flags. The Swedish royal flag ("Kungliga flaggan") is still identical to the triple-tailed military flag, but usually includes in its center a white field with the greater or the lesser coat of arms with the Order of the Seraphim, which has the King of Sweden as its Grand Master. The King personally decides about the specific use of the royal flag. According to early modern legend, the 12th-century King Eric IX saw a golden cross in the sky as he landed in Finland during the First Swedish Crusade in 1157. Seeing this as a sign from