An ensign is a national flag when used at sea as a country's maritime flag. It serves as a distinguishing token, emblem, or badge, such as a symbol of office in heraldry. The military rank of ensign, a junior officer once responsible for bearing an infantry or artillery unit`s national colors (in the cavalry the equivalent rank was cornet) or a ship's ensign, derives from it.
Large versions of naval ensigns called battle ensigns are used when a warship goes into battle.
In nautical use, the ensign is flown on a ship or boat to indicate its nationality. Ensigns are usually at the stern flagstaff when in port, and may be shifted to a gaff (if available) when the ship is under way, becoming known as a steaming ensign.
Vexillologists distinguish three varieties of a national flag when used as an ensign:
Ensigné is a commune in the Deux-Sèvres department in the Poitou-Charentes region in western France.
The surrounding countryside is densely wooded. The village is close to the forest of Ensigné and of Aulnay.
The kindergarten and primary school have been merged with those of Asnières-en-Poitou and Paizay-le-Chapt, none of the three individual villages having a population above 300 by the start of the twenty-first century.
The history of the village is closely linked to that of the Knights Templar. Ensigné contains a Templar command post comprising fortifications, a chapel and a castle. Today the site is privately owned: the castle itself is in a ruined condition, but two separate properties have been created from the part including the former chapel.
While there are many costumes from the Star Trek television series and motion pictures, the ones worn by actors portraying enlisted personnel and officers from the fictitious organization Starfleet are the ones most closely associated with Star Trek costuming. Design varied among the successive costume designers, although generally costumes and insignia were consistent within any one series or film. Costumes were re-designed to improve appearance when filmed and to improve the comfort for actors. Deliberately mixing styles of uniforms from the various series was occasionally used to enhance the sense of time travel or alternative universes.
The original uniform designs were the product of designer William Ware Theiss. The original series uniforms consisted of a colored top and dark pants, with significant variations between the designs used in the pilot episodes and the rest of the series.
The first uniforms, as seen in the unaired pilot "The Cage" (footage was re-used in a later episode, "The Menagerie") and again in the second pilot "Where No Man Has Gone Before", are somewhat different from the Starfleet uniform seen in the rest of the original series. The original concept used a heavy, ribbed turtle neck collar of the same color as the tunic for the men, with a cowl neck variation for the women, each in three colors: gold, beige, and light blue.