Jack Tar

by Roy Adkins

  For those who had not purchased their gear ashore or needed to replace something beyond repair, the purser had lengths of cloth or ready-made garments for sale that were referred to as ‘slops’, a term of uncertain derivation dating back to Chaucer. Dead men’s clothing was also sold off, though the regulations specified that ‘No seamen shall be permitted to bid for deceased officers clothes that are above their wear [rank]’,41 because at sea as well as on land clothing was an indication of status. Clothes and shoes, mostly second-hand, were available from slop-sellers who came out in boats to the warships, as on one unfortunate occasion in March 1808: ‘Thursday the Mars, of 74 guns, Capt. Lukin, was paid wages at Portsmouth, and there being a number of Jews and other slop-sellers round the ship, as usual, endeavouring to obtain admission to vend their commodities, they were ordered to keep off from the ship, but one boat persisted in coming alongside, when the marine on the gangway fired into her, and shot a young man of the name of Abrahams, dead on the spot.’42 The marine, Joseph Jones, was tried for murder at Winchester, but was instead convicted of manslaughter as he was under orders at the time. He was fined 6 shillings and 8 pence, which was paid by the Admiralty. As a result of this incident, the regulations were tightened, and marines were issued with blank cartridges for similar occasions in future.

  Seamen were not averse to selling their own clothes for other goods, usually grog. At Madras in India in 1804 on board the Culloden, Robert Hay recounted one fraudulent transaction:

  It was a standing rule aboard that no seamen were permitted to exchange articles of clothing for any of the commodities that came alongside for sale. The natives knew this, so that when any bartering took place it was all performed in an underhanded way. On this occasion none of the articles of barter could be examined narrowly lest the officers should discover what was going on, but as soon as the exchange was made the parties secreted their wares in the best manner possible. One of our seamen had a red flannel shirt, an article to which the natives are very partial. Resolving to make the most of it he cut it into 4 pieces, back, front and two sleeves. He enclosed in each piece as much rubbish as made it into the size of a full shirt, and sold each piece into different boats as a full shirt.43

  When Samuel Leech joined the navy at the age of twelve with the reluctant support of his mother, after his father died a decade earlier, he was lucky that she bought him some basic items, including

  a complete suit of sailor apparel; a tarpaulin hat, round blue jacket and wide pantaloons. Never did a young knight swell with loftier emotion when donning for the first time his iron dress, than I did when in sea dress I trod the streets of Gravesend … That I should not lack the means of comfort, my good mother purchased me a chest of clothing, and, as her last token of maternal care, presented me with a Bible, prayer book, and, strangely inconsistent companions, a pack of cards!44

  Many sailors had to make their own clothes, especially those who were pressed and only had what they stood up in, like William Richardson who was seized by the press-gang at Calcutta in 1793 to serve on board the Minerva frigate: ‘As there were no slop cloaths on board, the Purser soon after served out so many yards of dungaree to each man with needles and thread to make shirts, jackets and trowsers of it, and my messmates being a good set of fellows and accustomed to the work soon taught me to cut out and make, and soon after I got decently rigged with some to spare. With a new straw hat I made by their instructions, I was not badly off.’45 Some captains listed the clothes that the men should have, like Captain Barlow of the Phoebe, who specified ‘3 jackets, 2 p[air] shoes, 4 shirts, 4 p[air] stockings, 4 p[air] trowsers, 1 hat or cap, 2 inside jackets, 2 pair of drawers, 1 pair blue trowsers, 1 frock’.46 He added: ‘The men are positively forbid to wear dirty or ragged cloaths.’47 Captain Edward Riou of the Amazon in 1799 gave a similarly detailed list ‘in order to produce uniformity and neatness of dress’.48 He also directed that ‘officers are to observe that each man has some sort of mark upon his linen so that thefts may not only be discovered but prevented, and mistakes avoided’.49

  The seamen went for practicality, but they relished fine clothes for their rare trips ashore, as Robert Wilson related:

  It’s curious to see a tar lay hold of a piece of fine white linen (to make himself a go-ashore shirt, as he terms it) and a black cinder and mark where he wishes to cut the linen. Then, after he has cut out the body, sleeves, cuffs, gussets, collar, etc., to see him take into his hand, that’s like unto a shoulder of mutton, a fine small needle and sew away, and that not slow. I say it is in a manner surprising, and you could not but give credit to him when he has finished his shirt.50

  After deserting at Plymouth, Robert Hay went into hiding, and watched from a window the swaggering seamen on shore leave dressed in their best: ‘The jolly tar himself was seen with his white demity trowsers fringed at the bottom, his fine scarlet waistcoat bound with black ribbon, his dark broadcloth jacket studded with pearl buttons, his black silk neckcloth thrown carelessly about his sunburnt neck. An elegant hat of straw, indicative of his recent return from a foreign station, cocked on one side; A head of hair reaching to his waistband.’51

  Unlike seamen, even the lowliest marines had a uniform, which they wore when on duty. Each marine received annually a set of clothes from the Navy Board, and this uniform was similar to that of infantry soldiers: ‘A red cloth coat, white cloth waistcoat and breeches. One shirt, with one black stock [neckband]. One pair of stockings, to sergeants only. One pair of shoes. A hat.’52 Their red coats had a white border or lapel and long tails, though by the early 1800s the jackets became short at the front and were lined in blue. Marines also sported gaiters and a cross-belt – two leather straps whitened with pipeclay for suspending their bayonet and cartridge-pouch. Rather than breeches, they often opted for white or blue trousers.

  While helping out with everyday chores and in battle, marines did not wear their full uniform, but preferred casual seamen’s clothes, and men of the Marine Artillery were allowed to wear blue coats with a red collar and cuffs when involved in gun practice or if working ashore. During the Battle of Trafalgar Marine Lieutenant Lewis Rotely noticed his men’s casual appearance: ‘In the excitement of action, the Marines had thrown off their Red Jackets and appeared in their check shirts and blue trowsers. There was no distinguishing Marine from Seaman, all were working like horses.’53 The regulations distinguished between the official uniform for marines and their unofficial clothes: ‘When any marine belonging to the Ship dies, his clothing and effects (except his uniform marine clothing) are to be sold at the mast, by auction.’54 Like seamen, marines also sold their clothes for alcohol, as John Howe did at Halifax in Nova Scotia in 1779, when he was fit enough to leave the hospital there:

  Being quite destitute of money I had recourse to selling my clothes to raise drink. This I done several times until all my spare clothes was sold. I stayed here near a month and went again to the ship which was repairing alongside the King’s wharf. My clothes was examined according to custom by the sergeant and found deficient and he reported it to the Captn. of Marines who said I should be well flogged for it if I didn’t tell who I sold them to, which I wouldn’t do knowing the people would be fined for buying them. He accordingly brought me before the Captain of the ship and requested him to punish me for selling my necessaries. But as the things were my own that I had sold he wouldn’t flog me as he allowed the men to get things from the purser to sell, they having no other way to get money. I was now sadly distressed for clothes as our Captain would not allow me to get any from the purser. I was now obliged to buy things and give my grog for them to the other men in order to keep free from vermin.55

  Marine officers were expected to set an example with their uniform, as Rotely told his father in Swansea, when asking him to send more clothes: ‘I am the first [in line] here for sea duty [so] you will see the necessity of my having my shirts as soon as possible. Please to lock them up in my large black trunk, you need not send the key as I have got
one with me that will open it. You may put in the old red coat – I shall find it useful on board ship as we are not allowed to wear any thing else but uniform.’56 The uniforms of marine officers were made for them by tailors, and their rank was distinguished by epaulettes on the shoulders of their coat, as well as other trimmings such as sashes round their waist.

  Uniforms also had to be worn by naval officers, though they were only stipulated for warrant officers from 1787, and surgeons were not included until 1805. A full dress uniform was for formal occasions and an undress (or frock) uniform for everyday purposes, and like the marine officers, these uniforms were made at great expense by tailors. The uniform varied according to rank, and as the regulations did not specify the cut, they also varied from officer to officer, according to his tastes. Everyday uniforms had more scope for interpretation, but most comprised long blue coats that were lined in white and had sloping fronts, though it became fashionable to have coats that were short in front. From 1795 gold epaulettes adorned the coats of lieutenants and above, though they had been unofficially worn before then.

  Most officers removed their epaulettes before a battle, because they were a distinctive item of their uniform and so could attract the attention of snipers. At Trafalgar Nelson wore his uniform as usual, and the Londonderry-born surgeon William Beatty recorded that when Nelson was shot, ‘The ball struck the epaulette on his left shoulder’.57 When doing the autopsy, Beatty noted that ‘A very considerable portion of the gold-lace, pad, and lining of the epaulette, with a piece of the coat, was found attached to the ball.’58 The irony is that before they became part of the official uniform, Nelson disparaged the wearing of epaulettes. In France in 1783, during a brief period of peace, Nelson met two British naval captains and sarcastically commented that ‘they are very fine gentlemen with epaulettes: you may suppose I hold them a little cheap for putting on any part of a Frenchman’s uniform’.59

  Other aspects of uniform such as the design of buttons, type of collar, gold braid and lace trimmings also denoted rank, but for everyday use officers wore white waistcoats and shirts, black neck-cloths or stocks, breeches in white, blue or grey that fastened below the knee with buttons or buckles, and stockings that resembled what would now be called long socks, but which were held in place well above the knee by a garter. Instead of breeches, many opted for long tight pantaloons or loose-fitting trousers of various colours. Neckcloths were often wound relatively tightly round the neck, while stocks, which were leather or velvet neckbands with a buckle at the back, had an even greater tendency to restrict head movements and tilt the head backwards. These were middle- and upper-class garments, worn by military and civilians, that literally made the wearers ‘stiff-necked’ and forced them to ‘look down their noses’ at other people.

  On board the Pegasus in 1788, the captain – Prince William, the future king – issued orders about what his officers should wear:

  It is my positive orders and directions that the officers … never go out of the ship upon duty but in their full [dress] uniforms. On board they may wear their frock uniform, except mustering on Sundays, and on other occasions when directed. The rest of the officers, under the denomination of warrant officers, are to comply with the late regulations adopted by His Majesty for the Royal Navy. The officers and gentlemen belonging to His Majesty’s ship under my command are not to wear any other waistcoats and breeches than the established uniform, except brown at sea, or long blue cloth trowsers, with or without boots as they like best; in the West Indies, linen breeches and trowsers.60

  When on duty in poor weather, officers had greatcoats, but Nelson apparently never bothered much about the cold or wet, and Beatty noticed that ‘he took no pains to protect himself from the effects of wet, or the night-air; wearing only a thin great coat: and he has frequently, after having his clothes wet through with rain, refused to have them changed, saying that the leather waistcoat which he wore over his flannel one would secure him from complaint’.61

  Everyone wore hats, which were used as a mark of respect, and Captain Barlow had to issue an instruction that ‘The People are to be particular in taking off their hats when they come on the quarter deck.’62 When Lieutenant Robert Young was tried for drunkenness and contempt towards Captain Lake on the quarterdeck in September 1809, one witness was asked by the court martial: ‘In what manner did the prisoner pull his hat off and put it on again’, to which came the reply ‘He took his hat quite off in the normal way.’63 For those on land, cocked and broad-rimmed hats were normal, but at sea these would have blown away or been constantly dislodged, and so the seamen devised more practical styles, including ones of leather, canvas or straw that they frequently wove themselves, then painted with varnish or tar to waterproof them. The name of their ship was commonly added as well, and Samuel Leech said that on Sundays, they all dressed up with ‘our black, glossy hats, ornamented with black ribbons, and with the name of our ship painted on them’.64 These hats, being coated with tar, were called tarpaulins, and seamen also wore knitted caps, often referred to as Monmouth caps, a style worn by seafarers since medieval times and traditionally made in the Monmouth area.

  There were few regulations for officers regarding hats. Bicorn or tricorn cocked hats were round hats with two or three brims permanently turned up – cocked. They were made from beaver fur, dyed black, and sometimes adorned with lace. Bicorn hats were most fashionable by 1800 and were originally worn with the two pointed ends over each shoulder, but by 1805 most officers wore flatter bicorns in a ‘fore-and-aft’ position, at right-angles to their shoulders, though admirals still wore them in the old style. For everyday use, many officers chose to wear low top hats of lacquered felt, glazed leather or beaver, which they called round hats. Most midshipmen and warrant officers wore these round hats, and they were also introduced for marines, replacing the bicorn. Not everybody liked the new-fangled way of dressing, and as a midshipman on board the Barfleur in 1790, James Gardner found that ‘Captain Calder was a … very strict disciplinarian. We dared not appear on deck without our full uniform, and a round hat was never allowed.’65 Similarly at Lisbon seven years later, Earl St Vincent issued an order to his captains: ‘The Commander-in-chief having seen several Officers of the fleet on shore dressed like shop-keepers, in coloured clothes, and others wearing round hats with their uniforms, in violation of the late order from … the Admiralty, does positively direct, that any officer offending against this wholesome and necessary regulation in future, is put under arrest and reported to the Admiral.’66

  It was impossible for regulations to cover footwear, because shoes for men at this time were limited to black leather ones fastened at the front by a single large buckle, though leather boots were worn by the marines and were becoming popular with navy officers. Marine Lieutenant Rotely wrote to his father, saying: ‘I shall want my … boot hooks [and] blacking brushes … I’ll thank [you] to send my old boots and shoes – shoes are 12 shillings a pair here’.67 The only alternative for the men was to make their own shoes from materials like canvas, and one of the first things that Robert Hay learned as a boy in the navy was how to make ‘canvas pumps’.68 Officers increasingly wore knee-high or calf-length black leather army-style Hessian boots (introduced originally by troops from Hesse in Germany) into which they tucked their pantaloons or trousers. At Trafalgar, Collingwood’s servant recalled that the admiral ‘dressed himself that morning with peculiar care; and soon after, meeting Lieutenant Clavell, advised him to pull off his boots. “You had better,” he said, “put on silk stockings, as I have done: for if one should get a shot in the leg, they would be so much more manageable for the surgeon.”’69 Captain Hardy was wearing shoes at the same battle, and Dr Beatty recorded that ‘a shot struck the fore-brace bits on the quarter-deck, and passed between Lord NELSON and Captain HARDY; a splinter from the bits bruising Captain Hardy’s foot, and tearing the buckle from his shoe’.70

  According to Beatty, Nelson mainly wore shoes, even in bad weather:

&
nbsp; He seldom wore boots, and was consequently very liable to have his feet wet. When this occurred he has often been known to go down to his cabin, throw off his shoes, and walk on the carpet in his stockings for the purpose of drying the feet of them. He chose rather to adopt this uncomfortable expedient, than to give his servants the trouble of assisting him to put on fresh stockings; which, from his having only one hand, he could not himself conveniently effect.71

  It was probably the tying of garters round his stockings that Nelson found most difficult, but the seamen never experienced the luxury of drying their stockings on carpet, and many preferred to go barefoot rather than get shoes and stockings sodden. At times even the officers went barefoot, like Vice-Admiral Pellew when the Culloden was caught in a hurricane in the Indian Ocean in 1809. ‘Dressed in a short jacket, a pair of trowsers, a small hunting cap and without shoes or stockings,’ Robert Hay observed, ‘he went about infusing courage and fortitude into all.’72 When in India, William Richardson said that ‘As for shoes and stockings they were not worn by common sailors in this hot country’.73 They were dispensed with in other climates as well – after the Repulse was hit by the huge wave and all the glass windows shattered, Marine Captain Wybourn wrote with concern in his diary: ‘34 panes of glass was precipitated about the ship in thousands of pieces and it will be a providence if the men, who will go barefoot, do not lame themselves’.74