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A flagship is the ship used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships. The term originates from the custom of the commanding officer (usually, but not always, a flag officer) to fly a distinguishing flag. Used in this way, "flagship" is fundamentally a temporary designation; the flagship is wherever the admiral is flying his flag. However, admirals have always needed additional facilities; a meeting room large enough to hold all the captains of the fleet, and a place for the admiral's staff to make plans and draw up orders. In the age of sailing ships, the flagship was typically a first-rate; the aft of one of the three decks would become the admiral's quarters and staff offices. This can be seen today on HMS ''Victory'', the flagship of Admiral Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar, now at Portsmouth, England. In the 20th century, ships became large enough that most types could accommodate commander and staff, and during World War II admirals would often prefer a faster ship over the largest one. Increasing communications and computing requirements have resulted in the design of specialized command and control ships to serve as flagship. Thus, today the flagship of a fleet is usually the best-equipped, and most famous ship whence orders come.
Flagship in language As with so many other naval terms, flagship has crossed over into common parlance, where it means the most important or leading member of a group. It has also come to be an adjective describing the most prominent or highly touted product, location, or service among those offered by a company. It now has common derivations such as the "flagship product" of a manufacturing company or "flagship store" of a retail chain. Broadcast stations A flagship station is also the "home" station of a broadcast network (radio or TV). It can be the station that produces the lion's share of material for the network, or the station in the parent company's home city or both. The term dates back to the mid-century years of broadcasting when the local stations themselves produced programs for the network, as PBS does today. For example, the flagship stations of the ABC, NBC and CBS television networks (and ABC and CBS radio networks) are their owned and operated outlets in New York City. While a handful of PBS stations, including WGBH, KQED and WNET provide the lion's share of the web's programming, the TV industry has long given the "flagship" appelation to WNET, dating back to its years as the key outlet for PBS's predecessor, National Educational Television. In sports broadcasting, the "flagship" is the sports team's primary station in the team's home market. For example, WGN radio and television are the flagships of the Chicago Cubs baseball team, which also has an extensive radio network. Automotive The term flagship is also used to describe the top or main vehicle manufactured by automotive marque. These vehicles are usually, but not always, the most expensive, prestigious and largest vehicles in the line-up. While the flagship is always the most prestigious vehicle in a company's line-up, it may not always be the most expensive, or the largest. The Lincoln Town Car, for example, while considered the flagship of the Lincoln division, ranges roughly $6,000 below the Navigator in price. In the case of Cadillac the DTS flagship sedan is not only priced roughly $11,000 below the Escalade but it is also smaller, in terms of overall length and width, than the Escalade ESV. However, the term is most often applied to sedans and usually only those manufactured luxury automobile marques. Fiction The meaning of flagship has been loosely interpreted in works of fiction as well. For example, the USS ''Enterprise'' in Star Trek (in the Next Generation era) is often referred to as the flagship of the United Federation of Planets, even though it does not carry commanding officers of higher rank than the captains aboard other ships. This is because, in Star Trek, the term seems to mean the ship that represents the fleet as a whole and hosts the most advanced technology and finest crew, though not necessarily the crew of the greatest rank. Darth Vader's flagship is the Super Star Destroyer Executor. Although Lord Vader is not an admiral, he has a special military rank in the Empire that makes him answerable only to the Emperor, and apparently all the officers in the Navy are under his command when needed. Vader uses the Executor as a flagship, leading a fleet of other ships from the Executors bridge. This ship does not have an obvious flag as itself. Also, in the PlayStation 2 game Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War, the main characters find themselves as part of a makeshift fleet fighting to stop the war between Osea and Yuktobania. The flagship of their fleet is the aircraft carrier Kestrel, simply because it is the most important ship in the fleet. Another Example is in the Games workshop Game Battle Fleet Gothic where regardless of of the players wishes Admirals in at least one race must be on the most expensive Warship present. In the computer game Homeworld 2, one of the races's (the vaygr) mothership analouge is called "flagship", it not only seems to be the main command center for the fleet, but also one of the main production centers other than shipyards. University campuses The phrase flagship campus or flagship university is often used with reference to state university systems in the United States, which often comprise numerous campuses in widely-separated locations. In this context, flagship means the original campus from which the system grew. Fulfilling the naval analogy, it is often (though not always) the site of the administrative headquarters for the system. A flagship campus is often a land-grant school dating from the wave of state university foundings that followed the Morrill Act of 1863. According to a Robert M. Berdahl, former Berkeley chancellor, the phrase "flagship" came into existence in the 1950s when the Morrill Act schools were joined by a newer campuses built in a wave of postwar expansion of state university system.•. Because of their age, the flagship campuses of a system are often the largest and best financed and are perceived as elite. Berdahl comments that those of us in "systems" of higher education are frequently actively discouraged from using the term "flagship" to refer to our campuses because it is seen as hurtful to the self-esteem of colleagues at other institutions in our systems. The use of the term is seen by some as elitist and boastful. It is viewed by many, in the context of the politics of higher education, as "politically incorrect." ... Only in the safe company of alumni is one permitted to use the term. Nevertheless, it is common for state university officials to use the term "flagship" in official contexts, e.g. "As the system's flagship campus, UMass-Amherst draws from throughout the Commonwealth, the nation and the world;"• "It is a pleasure to report to the General Assembly on the accomplishments and initiatives of the State's Flagship University."• | ||||||||
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