The house flag of Rivers Steam Navigation Co. Ltd, London. A white, swallow-tailed burgee with a blue saltire. A red disc is placed in the centre. The flag is made of a wool and synthetic fibre bunting. It has a cotton hoist and is machine sewn. The Rivers Steam Navigation Company, reincorporated in 1873, ran river shipping services on the Lower Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers. The company’s steamers and flats (barges) provided a crucial link between the Calcutta based manufacturing and oceanic transport operations and the agricultural and mineral resources of the wider hinterland. They brought to Calcutta jute from east Bengal and tea from Cachar and Assam, and took up stream the planters’ supplies imported from Britain and labourers from Bihar. By 1893 it possessed a fleet of 46 steamers and tugs and 78 flats. Once competitors, by 1889 Rivers Steam and India General worked together and were often referred to as the Joint Steamer Companies. Operations were always in danger from natural disasters such as floods, cyclones and earthquake in addition to periodical downturns in trade.

From the beginning, Rivers Steam and India General had strong links with the business networks of Sir William Mackinnon, one of the founders of the British India Steam Navigation Company. The political effects of the independence of India and the partition of Pakistan, coupled with industrial unrest, saw the beginning of the end.
Finally, in 1972 the assets were effectively nationalised and taken under the control of the Bangladesh Government. (Research Terry Lilley)
A rope and toggle is attached.