The house flag of F. Laeisz & Co., Hamburg. A white rectangular flag with the letters 'FL' in red. The flag is made of a wool and synthetic fibre bunting. It has a cotton hoist and is machine sewn. The motif is printed. A rope and clip is attached.

Carl Laeisz, the son of a hat manufacturer, entered his father’s business in 1852. It was he who turned the F. Laeisz company into a shipping business, though his father had briefly owned a brig. In 1857 they ordered a barque, which they named ‘Pudel’ (poodle) and from the mid 1880s onwards, all their ships had names starting with ‘P’ and became known as P-Line. The Laeisz company ships specialized in the carriage of South America nitrate. Their ships were built for speed, and they soon acquired an excellent reputation for timeliness and reliability, which gave rise to the nickname ‘The Flying P-Line’. The five-masted barque ‘Potosi’ made the voyage from Chile to England around Cape Horn in 1904 in just 57 days, - a record at the time. The company also owned some of the largest sailing-vessels ever built. As these were difficult for crews to handle, the company’s later ships such as ‘Peking’ and ‘Passat’ were smaller four-master barques.

During the First World War, many of Laeisz’s ships were blockaded in Chilean Ports and were later handed over as part of war reparations. However, Laeisz were able to re-acquire many of their fleet.

Towards the end of the 1920’s, the company began pulling out of the nitrate trade and transporting other goods such as bananas. They sold their older ships and began the transition to steam. F. Laeisz is still in business, owning and managing a fleet of cargo and passenger/ships. (Research: I Deusi)