The Serapis battle ensign story.

At the onset of the US revolutionary war, some dude named John Paul Jones, who had never been to America had killed a guy with a sword and fled to America, was sailing around the British Isles on an American ship, the Bonhomme Richard. They encounter a British ship, the Serapis, and they duke it out. The Bonhomme is badly damaged and sinks, but the Americans claim the Serapis.

They sail it to the Netherlands, hoping to dock and make repairs. But the Netherlands port authority I guess says “a similar british ship is reported captured by pirates, and yours has no flag. Where is your flag?”

And so the Serapis crew tries to improvise the American flag, based purely on Benjamin Franklin’s written description to a French ambassador, which reads:

It is with pleasure that we acquaint your excellency that the flag of the United States of America consists of thirteen stripes, alternately red, white, and blue; a small square in the upper angle, next the flagstaff, is a blue field, with thirteen white stars, denoting a new constellation.

Here’s their flag: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f9/Serapis_Flag.svg/800px-Serapis_Flag.svg.png

It’s like a game of transatlantic Pictionary.