Flag
A New Law Dictionary and Glossary · Alexander M. Burrill · 1850
A New Law Dictionary and Glossary
Duty of the. The ceremony of striking the flag and lowering the topsail of a vessel to the British flag, formerly practised as a solemn acknowledgment of British sovereignty over the British seas.
Molloy de Jar. Mar. 80, 82.
Called in an old record, "striking and veiling the bonnet."
Id. 80, in maxg.