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11 Guard of Honour march- pass
NAVY COLOURS AND SUNSET

12 End of Ceremony Following the 1797 mutinies in the British
fleet at Spithead, Admiral Lord St. Vincent

established the practice in the Royal Navy of
DECOMMISSIONING
raising and lowering the Colours--the ensign
and jack-at a formal ceremony with the band
and guard of the day paraded. The practice
was taken up by the U.S. Navy from an early
date and first codified in the 1843 Rules and
Regulations for the Government of the Navy.
At first, the time of morning Colours was
based on the time of Sunset; if the sunset
before 6:00 P.M., morning colours took place
at 8:00 A.M., otherwise at 9:00 A.M. This
RSN Patrol Vessels RSS Resilience (foreground)
and RSS Daring (Background) at the conformed to the contemporary British
decommissioning ceremony in Tuas Naval Base. practice. SPECIAL PENNANT USED FOR
RSN COLOURS.

The crew of Patrol Vessel RSS Daring bidding The crew of RSS Resilience lining the ship during
farewell to the ship, as its decommissioning its decommissioning ceremony
pennant is lowered.
Special pennants (PREP is used at RSN
colours. The pennant indicates the preparatory
status of the ceremony commencing from 5
minutes towards Colours and Sunset.

Commanding Officer RSS Resilience, Major Lee Pui
Yau (front, right) presenting RSS Resilience’s jack,
ensigns and commissioning pennant to Chief of
Navy Rear Lew Chuen Hong (front, left) at the
decommissioning ceremony.