Ann Mills, date unknown

Ann Mills, Served on Board the Maidstone Frigate, R. Graves after unknown artist, original date unknown, National Maritime Museum.

Ann Mills is a mystery. The only artistic depiction to survive, the one featured here, was a copy made decades after the original. Truth be told, Ann Mills may not even be a real person.

Vague recollections of some action around 1740 aboard a frigate named Maidstone (there were other vessels around the 1740's named Maidstone, but no frigate) are related generations after the supposed event, and give so little detail that there is virtually no trail to follow.

Mills offers us far less to go on than the famous Hannah Snell. It may be that Mills was a fiction inspired by the true life of that female marine, who fought at roughly the same time as Mills' supposed service.

Thankfully, Frank Felsenstein has taken an interest in Mills, and published a short piece on gender and national conflict entitled "Unravelling Ann Mills: Some Notes on Gender Construction and Naval Heroism" in McMaster University's journal Eighteenth Century Fiction.

Mills wears a cocked hat with a very short brim over short curled hair. He collarless jacket is double breasted with a remarkable number of buttons on he lapels and open mariner's cuffs. He waistcoat is plain, dark, and also double breasted. A white cravat is neatly tied and tucked into the waistcoat, which hangs above the plain white slops/petticoat trousers. He white stockings run to pointed toe shoes with fanciful rectangular buckles of white metal.

A Fleet Wedding, 1747

A Fleet wedding between a brisk young sailor & his landlady's daughter at Rederiff, engraved by John June, 1747, British Museum.

June's engraving is a companion piece to "The Sailor's Fleet Wedding Entertainment," published the same year. This print depicts the arrival of the bride and groom and the guests that greet them.

The sailor and his bride stride happily toward a pair of reverends, arm in arm. They are the same couple in the companion piece, and just as happy in their embrace.

The sailor-groom wears the same fine shore going rig in both prints. An untrimmed cocked hat with a large bow (though on the left side in the first print, and right on the second), long white neckcloth or cravat hanging down over a single breasted plain waistcoat, and a single breasted blue jacket with mariner's cuffs fastened by cloth covered buttons. Notably, his cuffs are frilled, something you would expect at a wedding and probably never see while working aboard.

As our sailor is standing in the open and not behind a table, we get a good look at the hem of his waistcoat, which is cut much as any of the century, with a cutaway and pocket flaps that line up right at the waist (about a modern belt line). His breeches appear to have a broad fall fly, but the shoes have too little detail to draw any solid conclusions.

To the right, a sailor hoists his rather rotund woman from the carriage. Though many in the nearby crowd do not share the sentiment, this sailor and his lady are jovial.

He wears a cocked hat with a large white cockade on the right over bob styled hair. His jacket has waist pockets with three vents along the back. At the end of his jacket are mariner's cuffs fastened with six buttons and frilled cuffs. Our tar's slops end below the knee, showing off white stockings, and pointed toe shoes. 

Half Length Portrait of a Young Man, 1774

"Half length portrait of a young man," Gabriel Bray, 1774, National Maritime Museum.

This intimate portrait was done by Bray aboard the frigate Pallas during her 1774-1775 cruise. Though the sitter is unidentified, the National Maritime Museum speculates that it may have been an officer or a mate. The clothing is simple, the same as a common seaman would wear. There are examples of officers wearing simple sailor's clothes, like in "Etched from the Life on Board a Scotch Ship: Cook, Captain, and Mait" or the portrait of Captain Andrew Wilkinson. It wouldn't be unheard of for a naval officer to wear more common clothing. There is also the possibility that this is a master, or another warrant officer who was not subject to uniform regulations.

Regardless of this man's place in the Pallas' hierarchy, he wears a round hat with a broad band around the crown fitted with an oval buckle. Its brim is turned up on each side at something of a jaunty angle. His hair is turned into side curls, and it appears that the hair at the back of his head is cut short. With his head bent forward, the sailor hides us from a good view of his cravat, which is tucked behind his jacket. We do get a hint of it beside his neck, where the white fabric peaks out.

His light blue jacket is single breasted and fitted with large cloth covered buttons, a pair of which are missing from the middle. This gives us a view of his waistcoat or shirt beneath. Though there is little detail it appears to be of the same fabric as the jacket.