Greenwich Hill or Holyday Gambols, 1770's

Greenwich Hill or Holyday Gambols, William Humphrey, 1770's, British Museum.

The British Museum dates this piece to between 1740-1765. I disagree, because Humphrey wasn't born until 1745, and moved into his shop at 227 Strand (as advertised at the top of the print) around 1777. Elements of this print appear to be copied in C. Sheppard's 1786 print Greenwich Park, and so I would date it between 1777-1786, though leaning toward the 1770's due to the fashions of the men and women depicted.

At the bottom of the print are a few lines of strained prose extolling the unbuttoned fun that Greenwich could provide:

Ye sweetscented Sirs who are sick of the Sport
And the state languid follies of Ballroom or Court,
For a Change leave the Mall & to Greenwich resort,
There heighten'd with Raptures, which never can pall,
You'l own, the Delights of Assembly and Ball,
Are as dull as Yourselves & just nothing at all.

In the foreground on the right, a sailor dances with a pretty lass, to the delight of a gathered crowd and the music of a blind pensioner. The sailor's blue jacket with buttoned mariner's cuffs is piped with tape through the seams, and he is without a waistcoat. He wears the rare striped petticoat trousers and tucks a stick under his arm. Atop his bob wig is a cocked hat tripped with white tape.

Behind the dancing couple are a few more mariners. One wears a suit with a reversed cockated hat, another is in a single breasted waistcoat, jacket, trousers, and cocked hat. Another rests on the ground in his jacket and neckcloth.

Groups of men and women run and tumble down the hill, with sailors interspersed among them. These two wear the same slop clothes: cocked hat, jacket, trousers that end about the top of the calf, and without waistcoats. One carries a stick.

A brave tar leads the way here, waving his cocked hat as his neckcloth flutters from his neck. He wears a jacket, no waistcoat, and petticoat trousers.

This odd looking fellow wears a Canadian cap, a large white neckcloth tied loosely, a single breasted jacket, and petticoat trousers. I'm not sure what to make of his stockings. They might be loose gaiters of some sort. He leans on the eighteenth century sailor's ever trusty companion: a stick.

Captain James Lowry, 1752

Captain James Lowry, R. Bennett, 1752, British Museum.

My favorite Scottish sea captain/murderous tyrant returns!

In case you missed the previous posts, Captain Lowry was master of the Molly merchantman and during a return voyage from Jamaica to London, he tied up an ill sailor named Kenneth Hossack and beat him to death. Claiming that Hossack was faking his illness ('shamming Abraham'), Lowry's brutality led to a lawful mutiny. Once he and the Molly's crew returned to England, Lowry was arrested, tried, convicted, and hanged.

R. Bennett depicts Lowry as a well dressed Scotch gentleman, standing over the ship's log, a compass, whip, chart of Jamaica, and cross-staff. These surmount a verse from Proverbs 2:22:

But the wicked shall be cut off from the earth, and the transgressours shall be rooted out of it.

The cross-staff is of particular interest because of its obsolescence. Cross-staffs were a useful tool in navigation, particularly for latitudinal navigation, but had long been eclipsed by the backstaff (Davis quadrant) and octant by 1752. They continued to be produced and used, as with this 1779 Dutch example in the National Maritime Museum, but were not a preferred means of navigation by the time Bennett etched this print.

To the left of Lowry is a boat full of sailors, some of whom cower behind the officer in the bow at the sight of the murderous captain.

Between the viewer and the boat is Lowry's cane, marked 'Royal oak Fore Mast.' This is the same stick Lowry carried about the ship. As John Hunt testified in Lowry's trial:

Wm. Waum's scull had a piece of wood stuck in it; and after the prisoner [Lowry] had given him a plaister, he beat him round the deck with the Royal Oak Foremast, (as he called it) which was a large cane as thick as my hand; he broke it all to pieces.

William Dwite, another of the Molly's crew, corroborated Hunt's testimony, saying that for nearly the entire crew, Lowry 'saw nothing farther than beating and abusing them with the Royal Oak Foremast.'

Lowry's nickname for his favorite instrument of torture might have been derived from the remarkably old ship of the line Royal Oak. Launched as a 74 gun ship in 1674, she was rebuilt as a 70 gun several successive times through the late seventeenth and first half of the eighteenth centuries, before being converted to a prison ship in 1756.

Side note: direct links to OldBaileyOnline can be a bit dodgy. Use the reference number t17520218-1 to find Lowry's trial transcript.

The Scotch Triumvirate, artist unknown, 1752, British Museum.

The Royal Oak Foremast makes an appearance in another print from 1752, in which Scotsmen are roundly condemned as murderers, with 'The Scotch Triumvirate' as the artist's evidence. Lowry is front and center, with the noose tugged tightly around his neck.

From the earth rises Kenneth Hossack in his burial shroud, who cries 'You suffer'd justly for Wipping me to Death.' Behind the outstretched clasping hand of Hossack's corpse is the Royal Oak Fore Mast.

The sailors in the boat are either hatless or wear cocked hats. One of the oarsmen appears to be wearing his reversed. Looking terribly afraid, the sailor behind his officer wears a single breasted waistcoat (as do two of his mates), and striped petticoat trousers. The sailor on the far right wears a bob wig and carries a stick. All of the cuffs we can see are scalloped mariner's cuffs and closed.

Another boat pulls alongside the Molly, this one with kitted out bargemen. Her stern is crowded with sailors bearing sticks, wearing single breasted waistcoats, jackets, and wearing cocked hats. The bargemen are in shirt sleeves with jockey style barge caps. Two sailors near the bow wear bob wigs and trousers.

The Molly is depicted as a two decker Man of War with her guns run out, rather than a merchant ship returning from Jamaica at a time of peace. Lowry lashes Hassock with a cat o' nine tails while cursing, 'Dam him he shams Abram.'

Jaco-Independo-Rebello-Plaido, 1747

 

Jaco-Independo-Rebello-Plaido, D. Bobin, 1747, Yale University Walpole Library.

There are many things you can say about political cartoons of the eighteenth century. What you can't say is that they were subtle. Half a year after the crushing defeat of the Jacobite rebellion at Culloden, this cartoonist still fears sedition from the North. Or, more appropriately from Satan. The kilt-clad Devil himself floats above the mob, grinning at their dissent.

Any self-respecting eighteenth century mob must include sailors. This one is no different, and they can be found in the far left foreground.

Most of the tarpawlins wear short jackets with buttoned mariner's cuffs and slops. The headware is diverse: one is hatless, another with a round hat, a third with a cocked hat, and at the center: a turban! A "Turk" has joined the sailors, as evidenced by his dark skin, mustache, and turban. The North African sailor is by far the best turned out of the lot, with striped waistcoat and slops as well as frilled cuffs. He, along with his mates, bears a cane or walking stick.

The tallest figure is on the far right. His girth is barely held in check by his single breasted short jacket with its open mariner's cuffs, behind an apron or slops. What I can't quite figure out is what is hanging from this belt:

At first glance, it looks like a belaying pin. Today, it's a popular "reenactorism" for interpreters to stuff a belaying pin in their belt to use as a bludgeon. In the roughly two hundred images I have examined so far, this would be the first to evidence that. Canes, sticks, and cudgels are far, far more popular than belaying pins ashore. At that, there's an odd loop to the top of it. Belaying pins require no loop or hook, as they fit into precut holes in the fife rail of a ship. More likely, this piece is a marlinspike, fid, or other sailor's instrument.

UPDATE: At the suggestion of a few of my loyal readers, and the examination of other images, it is clear that this man is not a sailor. Rather, he is a butcher! The tool at his waist is used to sharpen his knives.

A New Method of Macarony Making, As Practiced at Boston in North America, 1775

A New Method of Macarony Making, As Practiced at Boston in North America, Carington Bowles, 1775, University of Wisconsin Digital Library for the Decorative Arts and Material Culture.

From the beginning of this project, I have been searching for a high resolution copy of this print, and finally I have stumbled across it! The University of Wisconsin's Digital Library for the Decorative Arts and Material Culture has faithfully reproduced this rare image.

Even to an eye only somewhat familiar with political cartoons of the American Revolutionary era, the central figure (covered in feathers, bent on one knee and begging to be released from the noose fitted about his neck) is an obvious copy.

Library of Congress

Even the title has been lifted from a popular piece that was published only a year before. Unlike many lazy attempts to cash in on popular prints by reproducing the exact same print (only worse), Bowles used only the central figure of the original and expanded the rest of the scene dramatically.

Bowles also added a short ditty to explain the scene:

For the Custom House Officers landing the Tea ; / They Tarr'd him and Feather'd him just as you see, / And they drench'd him so well both behind and before / That he begg'd for God's sake they would drench him no more.

Sure enough, we find the begging Tory at the feet of American tars.

Perhaps taking his cue from John Adams famous description of the Boston mobs as "a motley rabble of saucy boys, negros and mullatos, Irish teagues and outlandish Jack tars," Bowles illustrates a black and a white sailor. The seaman on the right wears a knit cap (possibly a thrummed cap) decorated with a large cockade.  His dotted neckcloth hangs over a striped waistcoat, beneath a fairly typical single breasted short jacket. His mate, ready to haul the Tory aloft by his neck, also wears a dotted neckcloth, but has much fancier headwear: a cocked hat with large cockade and lace tape. Perhaps further indicating his position as a leader among the violent mariners, his jacket is also lined with tape around his cuffs, waist pockets, and lapels. A plain waistcoat is fitted beneath, and a simple pair of trousers complete his slop clothes.

To the far left in the foreground is a short sailor, perhaps a lad. He wears a round cap, probably a knit cap judging by the stripes. His jacket is very short, barely extending past the waist, with mariner's scalloped cuffs buttoned closed. Otherwise he wears striped slops, a solid color neckcloth, and striped slops. 

Amid the crowd, right at the foot of the gallows, is a sailor heaving a stone at the helpless and prostrate man. His is a short brimmed round hat. Over his triple vented jacket is tied a dark neckcloth bordered in a lighter color, and beneath it is a pair of close fit striped trousers. Along with many of the other jacks, he carries a stick or cudgel.

Smiling as he watches the scene beside another Bostonian (probably not a sailor judging by his hair length, frock coat, and stockings), yet another tarpawlin wields a cudgel. Another thrummed cap with cockade, just like that worn by the black sailor, is visible here. His jacket is also lined with tape, but is double breasted. A white neckcloth, striped waistcoat, and plain trousers finish him off.

At the far right of the crowd another sailor gestures toward the Boston Tea Party. The infamous December 1774 event did not occur alongside a tar and feathering, but this sailor may be a visual key by the artist to indicate how the chronologically separate events are linked through the same violent rabble. 

Regardless, this sailor wears a cocked hat with the point forward and a large cockade, a solid colored neckcloth, short jacket with no waist pockets and trimmed around the cuffs and armscye, single breasted waistcoat with stripes that only appear straight down the front along the buttons stand, and a pair of striped trousers.

The Tea Party participants have foregone their Indian garb in favor of sailor's clothing. Trousers that areplain, horizontally striped, and vertically striped, accompany short jackets with slash cuffs and, in one case, even a striped jacket. Striped jackets are mentioned here and there in textual accounts of sailors, but rarely turn up in art depicting them. What's great about this piece is that this sailor is not the only one with a striped jacket.

To the left of the scaffold stands a young man waving his cudgel, but his eyes are fixed on a man symbolically pissing into a teapot:

Hatless, he too wears a striped jacket, accompanied by plain slops.

Figure, 1758

Figure, Bow Porcelain Co., 1758, National Maritime Museum.

I've managed to dig up another reference to striped petticoat trousers! The sailor this figure depicts wears a reversed cocked hat and a light yellow neckcloth with narrow red stripes. His blue waistcoat is fitted with narrow, vertical gold stripes. The jacket is pink with narrowly spaced buttons.White stockings and round toe shoes with oval buckles complete the outfit.

Myneer Nic Frogs Lamentation, or Dutch Milk a fine Relish to English Sailors, 1781

Myneer Nic Frog's Lamentation, or Dutch Milk a fine Relish to English Sailors, W. Wells, 1781, National Maritime Museum.

The Dutch and the British, each personified, face off over a cow's milk. I'm having a lot of trouble understanding what precisely is going on here, but the British sailor is clearly making away with the milk while ships in the background trade broadsides. This cartoon is wonderfully colorful and detailed, and gives us a lot to talk about. 

The tar wears a black round hat with a wide brim that is just barely turned up on each side. His neckcloth is yellow with red stripes. Our sailor's white lined blue jacket ends at the top of the thigh, is double breasted with slash cuffs, and no pockets. His waistcoat is red and triple breasted with brass buttons. The broad fall fly of his slops are wonderfully detailed, and the slops themselves are striped with red vertical stripes! This is very unusual indeed. Beneath this is a pair of white stockings, and pointed toe shoes with rectangular buckles. 

The British Tar's Triumph, 1783

The British Tar's Triumph, Thomas Colley, 1783, British Museum.

Riding the back of a Dutchman, our British tar swings a whip, riding crop, or perhaps a colt at a fleeing Spaniard, while being followed by a Frenchman bearing a broken sword. As far as political cartoons portraying British sailors of the American revolution go, it's pretty standard fare.

The seaman has no hat, and wears his hair about shoulder length. His neckcloth is spotted and of a light color. Our sailor's jacket is double breasted with slash cuffs and no collar. Interestingly, his slops are striped! I've only found one other image of this in the nearly one hundred I've examined so far. It is a very uncommon depiction. Otherwise, the sailor wears the typical white stocking and round toe shoe with a rectangular buckle.

EDIT: Adam Hodges-LeClaire points out that the object being whipped about by the tar is actually a queue! The long ponytail of hair that caricatures of the French were often depicted wearing has been torn off. You can see the ragged end of the queue hanging loose from the back of the Frenchman's head on the right.

The Jovial Crew, 1786

The Jovial Crew, Thomas Rowlandson, 1786, Royal Collection Trust.

Rowlandson sketched and painted a good number of sailors in the late eighteenth century, though I believe this is the first example I've examined. In this piece, three sailors relax dangerously close to a boom. A large tankard lays beside one, while another cradles his bowl. With such comforts, it's easy to see why these salty chaps make up the Jovial Crew!

The sailor on the left (the one with the long pipe between his lips) wears a black round hat turned up on both sides, a solid yellow neckcloth, and a single breasted white waistcoat. His blue jacket has mariner's cuffs, and all buttons are cloth covered. The slops about his legs are an off-white, probably canvas.

In the middle stands a proud tar with a red jacket. Though blue is by far the most common in primary source images, red is the easy second. Like his shipmate, this tarpawlin's jacket is single breasted, ending at the waist, with cloth covered buttons and mariner's cuffs, one of which is open. His hat is also a round hat, though not curved up quite so dramatically. The neckcloth is a bit of a mystery to me. At first glance it appears to be striped, but half of it appears black. Is this a pair of neckcloths wound together? Is it striped on one side and black on the other? Was this merely a poor attempt at shading? Regardless, he also wears a single breasted waistcoat of white, with a slight cutaway at the waist. A stick is tucked up under his arm in handsome fashion.

This is the first time I've ever seen slops in a patterned fabric! Thin blue stripes run at a slight angle along the length of his slops. Slops were more like glorified aprons than proper breeches, and were meant to protect the more breeches garments beneath. Because they were meant to get dirty, it made little sense to use decorative fabric on them, so this is certainly unusual.

At the far right is a sailor of African descent, the first to be featured in this blog. Though doubtless they were present and made up a measurable portion of eighteenth century sailors, a vast majority of primary source images focus on Anglo tars. Our seamen here wears a pink or very light red neckcloth, a brown short jacket with cloth covered buttons on his mariner's cuffs, and a pair of trousers.

The entire Jovial Crew wear their unkempt hair short, pointed toe shoes, and rectangular buckles.