FROM JACK TARS TO WHITE HATS

hi there yep he looks pretty sharp to the girls of today a century ago this blue jacket kept all the girls planning a few years before clays canvas hats and short coats were involved this man served when sailors often made their own uniforms and there was a time when American tars had no uniforms at all but that never stopped them in love orient war 1776 there was fire in the streets the revolt against King George turned every colonial port into a battleground plus our Navy was born in these early days men fought in whatever clothes they happen to bring a board only officers had uniforms to the well-dressed enemy Americans must have looked like pirates while the British artists picture them this way John Paul Jones has seen by a British engraver Jones in a British cartoon our own artists had quite a different view of the great naval hero victory George Washington in triumph victory now men could build for peace but gangs of pirates blocked the merchants roots of trade these early Wars made clear our need for a permanent baby by 1812 the dress of all officers had been regulated in detail but the sailors still wore whatever they came aboard in or could buy out of slops engravings of the time show them in loose shirts and trousers often cut from discarded sales the crude scissors they had made barbering so difficult most men wore their hair long usually in pigtails flat black hats or bandanas help keep it out of their eyes each ship's captain bought his crews clothing in bulk in whatever board he could strike a good bargain it was then retail to the men the price being taken out of their pay Oh this is the earliest United States Navy regulation touching on Siemens clothing not until 18 18 did regulations begin to make official the customary sailors garb in winter dark canvas trousers bailed wide at the bottom so they could be rolled easily for deck work a short blue jacket protected by a wide color against stains that might come from long and seldom washed hair hat ribbons tapes stars and the like were not regulation each sailor could decorate himself according to taste in summer whites were allowed often made by the sailor himself the black neckerchief was originally designed as a sweat plot by 1841 regulations were demanding that a sailor keep his hair short his beard assuming he was old enough to raise one could not descend more than one inch below the tip of the ears then as now he went away to the Navy a boy and came back a man war in Mexico and California in the late 1840s gave many a farmboy views of distant shores these sketches were made by william h myers a gunner aboard the u.s. loop of Wardell unsure the army is surrounded sailors come to the rescue Manning artillery rifles and boarding spikes victory in california but south of the Rio Grande e the war still raged so Gunnar Myers and his shipmates help to win California and Texas for the Union one flotilla saw even stranger sites when they were sent to open up Japan it's official artist shows how the Navy men of that day dressed went on show Commodore Perry awaits an audience with the shogunate there were official receptions and banquets to which some enlisted men were invited presents were exchanged and the Japanese got their first lessons in American know-how just an off-duty garb sailors went sightseeing some even took pictures with the bulky cameras of 1856 to show the folks back home where they had been ever since Civil War days photographers have shown us how the navy dress this picture was taken in 1861 notice the different color styles borne by the men those hard straw hats were not regulation either yet we know from these Mathew Brady photos that the Navy silhouette familiar to us today was well established as early as 1862 these photos were taken aboard the monitor first ironclad ship of the US Navy in the wars final stages boys of 12 we're doing man sized jobs they still left home as boys and came back men it was a grim and gritty war yet old salts are young whatever they wore the ladies still love them or so we are told in song and story with peace came a bit of officially sponsored binary notice the embroidery above the Chevron's white tape on collars and cuffs became uniform these old salts of the 1880s dressed for Sunday illustrate another important change the beribboned hats bearing the name of their ship whites were approved for summer wear and for Pacific stations or ordinary duty though particularly in winter they still wore almost anything that was warm the 1890s little change in uniform design but notice those bases mostly clean shaven and mostly clean the popularity of barbers had greatly increased the same for soap in water at last the American seamen appeared to be the kind of fellow every mother would be proud to have her daughter welcome home oh for what brought half a million new recruits into the Navy the clothes they were issued skippered little from those their fathers might have received for the war with Spain 20 years before though weapons were new life in the Navy was very much the same nor was life in Uncle Sam's Navy so very different for the three and a half million Americans who enlisted for the duration of World War two they were issued uniforms almost identical in basic design to those their fathers might have worn in World War what these uniforms still had to be the kind you could pack in a sea bag for porters on most ships were too cramped to accommodate lockers or sea chests and the Navy still wasn't the place where a man wore his dressing gown in pajamas one big improvement however was the practice of issuing special gear to ships companies for use on Arctic Convoys and other cold weather runs so they fought and like their ancestors of the revolution when the guns were hot each man wore whatever he could find that would protect him against the cold and wet it was a great victory now some thought the same as deserve something better than a uniform whose design had been set fully a hundred years before what should the American sailor dress like this war like this the Secretary of the Navy appointed a board of experts to decide after many months they published these three basic designs and asked for comments from All Hands afloat and ashore oh I don't like that color you'll make us well then [ __ ] better fit who won't look like they're how they live sissified look too much like the army hey Roy I bet you could affect dentistry bag was wrong with the only God it's just a most regulars and reserves turn thumbs down on the new design the plan was scrapped the uniform board settled for such minor changes as adding side pockets to trousers and zippered flies but even these breaks with Navy tradition were opposed by most old salts so 75 million American male switch to zippers the sailors stood cash so the Navy is once more major 13 button crunch it's official desire that is why the Sailor of today is dressed remarkably like his grandfather and great-grandfather 100 years ago well and why not you talk about your modern casual clothes open collar shirt tail out we've had that for years and everybody else has been going around choking on high collars and neckties and you talk about your clothes that's packed well more ours are designed to fit in a seabag have easy to wash easy to keep in shape and they fit neatly we've had a model uniform for a long long time and we're proud of it hola what do you think I don't think I'd change a thing hey you two Yes Mother dinner's ready you you you