The ram represents the territory's past primary industry of sheep farming, while the ship symbolises the Desire which reportedly first sighted the islands at the end of the 16th century.

[3] This was followed by the first documented landing in 1690 by John Strong,[5] who named the sound dividing the two largest islands after Anthony Cary, 5th Viscount Falkland.

However, the British sent a military force to the Falklands in early 1833 to expel Argentine officials there and proceeded to appoint the territory's first governor eight years later.

The ship from the Tudor period represents the Desire, the vessel in which John Davis is reputed to have sighted the Falkland Islands in 1592.

[15] The importance of these industries declined after the establishment of a 240 km (150 mi) fisheries zone around the territory,[15][16] which was announced in October 1986 and took effect in February of the following year.