1830s Naval

[DJ Palama]

The first thing that I'll talk about is the head gear:
The most common style was sennat, which simply is a straw hat, which was wore during the summer time to provide some relieve from the sun. The next style was the blue felt hats, wore during the winter time, which basically looks like a Rangers or a Scots flat hat. The other common style wore on the dress uniform was black broad-brimmed hat. Some sailors did wear the tarred hats still, but these were starting to lose appeal, and were replaced by the flat hats or the black hats.

[DJ Palama]

The Uniforms:
In the 1830s, was the first time that the government wanted the sailors to have a 'uniform' look:
The white frock was woren almost throughout the year, it basically looks like a long selveed shirt with a light blue bib, and a light blue collor. Both the bib and the sailor's collar had stars on them, which wasn't required but it was a favorite shape among sailors. The shirt was very loose fitting to allow the sailor to be able to 'breath' during the hot summer days. The winter uniform, was a blue frock with white cuffs, bibs, and sailor's collar, however this unifrom was given only to the East Indain Fleet. The pants were similar to the modern styles, except in most examples the buttons were placed higher up, could be white or blue. The monkey jacket was woren for dress only, and provided little warmth. The silk tie was also in use. Shoes were the borgan style. They also wore an undershirt, with selvees that went down to the elbow, which could be woren when working in hot conditions.

[richw]

George Caleb Bingham boatmen paintings:

www.artunframed.com/bingham.htm

www.nga.gov/feature/wilmerding/jwcat01.htm

www.thepastwhispers.com/flatboats.html

These are actually later than our period, but do show, as we might suppose, common work clothes.

But compare the paintings with this passage from Wau-Bun:

[The shirts of] "The Judge and my husband were gay with the deepest of blue and pink. Each was prepared, besides, with a bright red cap (a bonnet rouge, or tuque, as the voyageurs call it), which, out of respect for the lady, was to be donned only when a hearty dinner, a dull book, or the want of exercise made an afternoon nap indispensable."

We should probably also differentiate the knit "Scotch cap" mentioned by R.H. Dana, and seen in the paintings of Mount, Bingham, etc. from the cloth "pork pie" hat which became standard in the Navy. Although there is some overlap, the cloth cap is primarily military.

[DJ Palama]

Thanks for the links. Does anyone know where to get a decent priced "pork pie"? I have the blue flat hats that the USN was given, but haven't seen any "pork pies" out there.

[DJ Palama]

From the Book Mr. Lincoln's Navy:
The impetus for this campaign came from Congress's concern about the increasing number of foreign sailors serving in the U.S. Navy during the War of 1812. To alleviate this reliance on foreign sailors, Congress enacted legislation in March 1813 permitting only American citizens, blacks, and natives of the United States to serve on board navy ships and private vessels. To replace the foreigners, the navy appealed to the patriotism of the American citizens and offered sailors prize money for enemy vessels captured.
When the Treaty of Ghent, which ended the war with Great Britain, removed the lure of prize money, hundreds of enlisted men returned to their civilian communities. Other able-bodied tars opted for the better pay and living conditions on privately owned merchant vessels. The navy soon realized that if it was to compete with the merchant service for recruits, it would have to improve the living conditions aboard its own ships. In the decades following the war, some navy officers, with the critical assistance of several political activists and congressmen, embarked on an ambitious naval reform program dedicated to improving the living conditions aboard navy ships.
In this effort, naval reformers drew inspiration and assistance from the proliferation of reform movements that swept civilian society in the United States during the first half of the nineteenth century. Naval reformers solicited the services and assets of the religious, temperance, prison, and abolitionist civilian reform movements to improve the quality of life for the sailors. To improve the sailor's life aboard ship, the reformers had to attack simultaneously several perceived vices that they believed discouraged men from joining the navy. Naval reformers believed that the key to success lay in their ability to improve the sailor's religious awareness, to increase his pay, to abolish flogging, and to eliminate the "spirit" ration aboard ship.
Ironically, the first naval reformers concentrated their efforts on improving the sailor's life on shore and not aboard ship. The early reformers mainly consisted of chaplains and other clergy and women. These individuals believed that spiritual salvation was beyond the sailor's realm unless they removed the sinful temptations of prostitutes, alcohol, and "con men" from the sailor's life in port because the sailor's transgressions were most visible when he was ashore. Initially, the religious reformers lacked a medium for spreading their message. In 1825, a group of prominent citizens, influenced by the work of the religious naval reformers, founded the American Seaman's Friend Society, dedicated to improving the living conditions of sailors. Within two years of its founding, the organization produced the influential Sailor's Magazine and Naval Journal. The magazine grew in popularity among the tars and became the primary propaganda tool for the religious reformers and the American Seaman's Friend Society.
Besides the publication of the Sailor's Magazine and Naval Journal, the Seaman's Society provided respectable lodging for sailors while they waited for their ship's arrival in port. Funded by the society, these new boardinghouses contained small libraries consisting of bibles and religious tracts. The homes also operated small banks and provided nonalcoholic beverages. For a sailor away from his home, the boardinghouses provided a comfortable and safe alternative to most of the vices available to the sailor in seaport towns. Although the religious naval reform took years to gain momentum, it did not lose energy as did the civilian evangelical crusade in the late 1830s. The naval movement continued to carry the social reform banner for the sailor throughout the antebellum period.
In the 1830s, the religious movement prepared to expand its reform platform and tackled a more sensitive political issue, the abolishment of flogging on board ship. Since the navy's inception in 1775, its officers had relied on flogging as the primary means of punishing a sailor. The navy permitted its commanding officers to "award" a sailor a maximum of twelve lashes on his bare back for violating a variety of rules and regulations. Among other things, a sailor received a whipping for indulging in profanity, becoming drunk, fighting, beating a black sailor, smoking after taps, or not washing. The civilian community also liberally used the whip on slaves and in prisons during the antebellum period.
As early as 1820, however, the naval reformers, with the support of several Northern legislators, tried to eliminate flogging from the navy as an inhumane and immoral practice. In that year, naval reformers failed in their first attempt to influence Congress to approve a law abolishing flogging in the navy. The majority of the votes sustaining the practice of flogging came from Southern legislators, who were logically concerned that the abolishment of flogging in the navy would raise questions about the use of whips to discipline slaves.
Opponents of flogging welcomed the support in the 1840s from the growing antislavery movement. Naval reformers drew similarities between the terrible life of a slave and a sailor, and as the abolitionist movement gained momentum, so did the naval reform movement in its effort to abolish flogging. In 1848, the navy reported to Congress that it had awarded 5,936 floggings during the period 1846-47. Several members of Congress, shocked by the alarming number of floggings, renewed their efforts to abolish flogging in the navy. As the months passed, the number of individuals supporting the reform grew.
Despite the improvements in the sailor's lifestyle in the early nineteenth century, low wages remained the principle obstacle inhibiting enlistments in the navy. This issue also drew the attention of the naval reform movement. This time the reformers had to influence not only Congress, but the president of the United States. Although the navy periodically issued small bonuses to sailors from its annual operating budget, the president controlled the tar's annual salary. In 1820, an able seaman received only $12.00 a month, an ordinary seaman $10.00, and a boy $7.00. To compete with the merchant marine for sailors the navy routinely authorized bonuses ranging from $2.00 to $3.00 for enlisting, but the small bonuses failed to provide enough incentive to ensure a constant flow of recruits.