A Company flag…in many ways deserves preference over the ordinary commercial flag"[7] Golovnin returned the cannon salute of the Sitka Fort with an equal number, an honour usually reserved for naval vessels and forts, and established a precedent to equate the Company's flag with the Naval ensign. That same year the new governor of the colonies, naval Captain L.A. Hagemeister instructed the administrator of Fortress Ross "If the vessel is Russian or sent from the Chief Administrator, order the white Russian naval flag, with the blue cross of St. Andrew, or the Company flag to be raised on the fore-top gallant. Any foreign vessel arriving with permission will have one of these"[8] Hagemeister's successor, Lieutenant S.I. Yanovsky writing to K.T. Khlebnikov, who was departing for California aboard the Brig ILMENA, included instructions for the Company's flag use in his "Secret instructions" … "On your way there and back be careful of pirates, and for this [reason], when you sight a ship at sea, try to distance yourself from it; but if it is impossible to do so, then ready the artillery and crewmen in case of warfare, approach [it], raise the flag of the Russian-American Company, and, when you see that the enemy intends to attack you, exhort the crewmen to defend fearlessly the imperially conferred flag of the RAC and not to disgrace the glory of the Russian name…"[9]