British Resentment or the French fairly Coopt at Louisbourg, 1755

British Resentment or the French fairly Coopt at Louisbourg, Louis Pierre Boitard, 1755, Colonial Williamsburg.

British Resentment or the French fairly Coopt at Louisbourg, Louis Pierre Boitard, 1755, John Carter Brown Library of Early American Images.

Copies of this cartoon can be found at Williamsburg, the Walpole Library, the John Carter Brown Early American Images collection, the Library of Congress, the William L. Clements Library at the University of Michigan, and other major institutions.

Louisbourg had long been a target of the British in their wars against French Canada. This political cartoon by Boitard was counting chickens before they hatched. It would be another three years of war between the American and French colonies of North America.

There are a good number of sailors in this print, so we'll get right into it!

Starting from the left, there is a sailor at the base of the pyramid brandishing his curved cutlass and, in the words of Boitard, "pointing to the eclipse, & leering at a French Politician trapt by his own Schemes." This sailor wears a reversed cocked hat with narrow brim, held up by a skinny loop. His blue single breasted jacket has mariners cuffs with matching buttons. The waistcoat beneath is white with narrow vertical red stripes over a white shirt. A pair of white petticoat trousers and white stockings leading to pointed toe shoes with rectangular buckles complete his appearance. Peeking from beneath the petticoat trousers on his right leg is the tie that binds the breeches beneath.

In the foreground on the far right, conversing with a soldier, another tar sits by a cannon where he "Squeezes the Gallic Cock by the throat, & makes him disgorge the French usurpations in America." He also wears a blue jacket, with its mariners' cuff open so we can see the white shirt beneath. Trousers or petticoat trousers run down to the top of his calf when he site. He wears a yellow neckcloth which is spotted, and may have red spots in the Williamsburg version, but the resolution is too low to be certain. It appears that this sailor, too, wears his cocked hat reversed.

Behind the cannon "A Gang of brave Saylors [are] exulting at the Starving French coopt up." All of them wear petticoat trousers and carry or wear cocked hats, many of them bare bob wigs as they raise their hats in rejoicing. Most of them brandish long sticks. The mariner up front wears a striped waistcoat just like that of the sailor by the pyramid. Among them, the least uniform is only differentiated from his mates by the brown jacket he wears. Interestingly, most have flap pockets on their waistcoats and jackets, and at least one on his jacket.

Courtship in Low Life, 1785

Courtship in Low Life, Thomas Rowlandson, 1785, Royal Collection Trust.

The curators at the Royal Collection trust suppose this print to have been acquired by Queen Victoria in the nineteenth century. It was originally accompanied by a matching print entitled Courtship in High Life.

The latter, shown above, depicts the future King George IV, the current Prince of Wales, courteously kneeling at the foot of a well dressed woman. The humorous contrast comes from the drunken tar in the former, pouring a glass of wine and winking at a woman "in a state of undress" as the curator so delicately puts it.

Our sailor wears a black round hat with the short brim slightly upturned, possibly a buck hat. His curly brown hair might be cut short, but it's hard to tell with the detail in this image. Around his neck is a yellow neckcloth dotted in red, or perhaps floral. Looking closely, it is easy to tell that the original engraving did not grant our tar a waistcoat. There are no lines, no pockets, and no buttons. Possibly Rowlandson wanted his sailor to be wearing a shirt alone, or maybe a smock tucked into his trousers. The red may have been an attempt by the colorist to impart a waistcoat on our mariner.

His trousers are striped, but this was also added by the colorist. With a wooden leg for his left, he wears a blue stocking on his one good foot, with a white metal oval buckle on his shoe. His jacket is blue with yellow metal buttons. Interestingly, the open mariners' cuff on his left wrist still bears the yellow buttons, so perhaps Rowlandson intended them to be non-functional.

Ban-yan Day on board the Magnificent, 1789

Ban-yan Day on board the Magnificent; or, Pease Porridge hot from the Coppers!, John Nixon, 1789, British Museum.

Here King George III is depicted dining on the 74 gun Magnificent. Built in 1767, the Magnificent served the Royal Navy well through the American Revolutionary War and into the Napoleonic wars, before striking an uncharted reef and sinking in a mere hour and half off the coast of Brest in 1804. Miraculously, the entire crew survived.

John Nixon illustrates a scene of His Majesty and a small retinue on the Quarterdeck of the Magnificent on Banyan Day. One day a week the meals aboard Royal Navy vessels were without meat. King George inquires after what the seamen eat, and then asks for Pease Porridge. Accompanied by a full punch bowl and cheese, the small gathering are treated to music and the smiling faces of common tars as they dine.

Two common sailors stand to the side, watching the meal of their sovereign. Standing tall, one sailor wears his loose hair at shoulder length, and a yellow neckcloth. His double breasted blue jacket ends at the waist, with cuffs closed with cloth covered buttons. Close fitting white trousers end above the ankle, showing his pointed toe shoes, rectangular white metal buckles, and white stockings.

His mate has a remarkably long queue bound tight, and tied with a bow. He has also buttoned shut his mariner's cuffs, but appears to be wearing a single breasted jacket with flap waist pockets and white metal buttons. His neckcloth is white, as are his trousers or petticoat trousers/slops.

The Proclamation of Proclamations, 1763

The Proclamation of Proclamations or the most glorious and memorable Peace that ever was proclaimed in this or any other Metropolis throughout the World, Jeffereys Harnett O'Neall, 1763, Lewis Walpole Library.

The Proclamation of Proclamations or the most glorious and memorable Peace that ever was proclaimed in this or any other Metropolis throughout the World, Jeffereys Harnett O'Neall, 1763, British Museum.

Yet another crowded political cartoon, this one lampoons the Treaty of Paris in 1763 that ended the French and Indian/Seven Years War. O'Neall was, to use our modern parlance, a hawk. Staunchly opposed to the end of the war, he composed this piece that was not only anti-peace, but anti-Scottish. Twelve lines of verse elaborate on O'Neall's position, as if the caricature was not enough:

So here Fellow-Subjects, (so fine and so pretty!) A Show that not long since was seen in the City, With Marshals and Heralds and Horse-Grenadiers, And Musick before 'em to tickle our Ears, To tell us proud Sawney has patch'd up a Peace, That our Foes may take breath and out Taxes increase, Oh! who could have thought we should ever see the Day, When a Scotchman should over the English hold sway, Thus bully and swagger, and threaten and dare, Till the credulous Lyon falls into the snare? But though Coward-like form his Post he has fled, Let's hope yet his Lordship won't die in his Bed.

"Sawney" is a now obsolete epithet against the Scottish, and in this case refers to Lord Bute. Bute was the first Prime Minister from Scotland since the 1707 Act of Union combined England and Scotland into a single government. The Treaty of Paris was wildly unpopular among the English public and contributed greatly to Bute's eventual downfall, but that is another story.

Among the many crowded figures in this piece, we can see a pair of sailors on the far left in the foreground. The tarpawlin on the right raises his fist to strike a Scotsman, saying, "You a Commisioner! yes, I'll soon make a Commisioner of you; but it shall be in Hell first." This angry jack is joined by his mate, looking rather worse for wear, who declares "Splice my old Timber! I shall have the Freedom of the City for me and my Heirs for ever."

British Museum copy without colorization

Walpole Library copy with color

Both figures wear blue short jackets and cocked hats. Their jackets are slightly off in color, with the fellow on the left in a darker shade. His jacket has a mariner's cuff with an odd pattern to it, something like scalloping, but on the sewn edge. It could be that these are meant to represent buttons, but they are very numerous and closely spaced for that. At the rear, the wooden legged tarpawlin shows a triple vent ot his jacket. His mate's jacket is single breasted. One wears a black neckcloth, the other yellow.

The tar on the right wears his hat backward over bob style hair with the curls off center, and loose fitting long legged trousers. Our wooden legged mariner wears the point of his hat forward, with petticoat trousers/slops hanging down from his one good leg. Both sailors wear white stockings, and the fellow on the right has pointed toe shoes with rectangular buckles.

The Butchers of Freedom, 1788

The Butchers of Freedom, H. Humphrey, 1788, Walpole Library.

Unfortunately, the catalog entry for this piece is incorrect:

An obese old lady, wearing a flowered dress, is shown seated at a card table. Her hair is piled high and topped by a cap ; a spider dangles behind her.

What we see instead is violent political repression. A cleaver wielding mob descends on their opponents, hacking them to bits. At the center right of the image, with his boot pressed into the corpse of a sailor, is George Hanger. His hat is bedecked with three feathers: the symbol of his buddy the Prince of Wales. Hanger is often depicted wearing green, the color of his uniform while serving with the Queen's Rangers in America. Though the image from the Walpole Library does not sow him in this distinctive color, another colored print in the Yale University Digital Collections does.

Luckily for us, the dead sailor is also wearing a variant outfit.

In both images the dead tar wears no hat, and his banner displaying pride in the Royal Navy is trampled by the butchers. His jacket is double breasted with cloth covered buttons and open mariner's cuffs. In the first his jacket is green, in the second it is red. A yellow striped neckcloth is displayed in both. Jack also wears a pair of trousers with broad vertical stripes: red stripes in one, blue stripes in the other.

"Bachelor's Fare" Revisited, 1777

Back in January I featured this post addressing the clothing of sailors in the 1777 John Collet print "Bachelor's Fare."

Recently I revisited the online collections of the British Museum and found colorized versions of some of the images I've featured on this blog in the past. I was particularly intrigued by the versions of Bachelor's Fare that were available partly because I love the print, but also because they present two sides of the same coin.

The above is the original I examined, from the collection of the National Maritime Museum.

Two separate colorized versions are in the collection of the British Museum. What makes them valuable to our examination is the stark difference in their coloration.

In this first copy, the sailor in the foreground wears a blue jacket with brass buttons, a yellow neckcloth, blue checked shirt, a gold or yellow trimmed hat with matching cockade, and a pair of trousers with a slight blue hue. His mate in the background has a brown jacket with cloth covered buttons, a white neckcloth, and a yellow waistcoat with brown or black stripes.

The second copy is entirely different. The tarpawlin in the center wears a red jacket with white metal buttons, a black or brown checked shirt, a blue neckcloth dotted with white and yellow. His cocked hat is trimmed in white and fitted with a blue bow. The jack sticking his head through the doorway now wears a blue jacket with brass buttons, a red neckcloth, and a yellow waistcoat with horizontal red stripes.

I have also turned up a third copy that you can buy for yourself over at RareOldPrints.com.

Bachelors Fare, or Bread and Cheese with Kisses, John Collet, printed by Carrington Bowles, 1777, RareOldPrints.com

The Jack in the doorway wears a blue coat with white metal buttons over a white waistcoat with horizontal stripes. His black hat is untrimmed like the others. The seated fellow wears a red jacket with white metal buttons, a blue check shirt, and red striped waistcoat.

Let this be a warning to us! As much as I nitpick at the details, these prints are not photographs. They are completely subject to the artists', engravers', and colorists' interpretations and choices. It is impossible to know what these subjects really looked like, if indeed they are even based on actual individuals. The best we can hope for through this examination is to come to an idea of what the general appearance of a sailor in the time was.

Labour in vain or let them tug & be da--nd, 1782

Labour in vain or let them tug & be da--nd, W. Richardson, 1782, Library of Congress.

Labour in vain or let them tug & be da--nd, Thomas Colley, 1782, National Maritime Museum.

The catalog entry for this political cartoon at the Library of Congress (linked above) does a fine job of summing up what we're looking at here:

Print shows Neptune, the British lion, Britannia, and a British sailor on a piece of land labeled "England" laughing derisively at a Dutchman, a Frenchman, a Spaniard, and a partly draped Native woman wearing a feathered headdress, representing America, who are tugging at taut ropes hooked onto English soil.

Once the former American colonies had secured European allies, fears of invasion in England caused the Crown to reevaluate its strategy. The artist is here dismissing concerns of a European invasion by claiming that the British could handily defeat their opponents.

Looking on with an amused expression of contempt, and causing Britannia to laugh at his command of 'Avast heaving,' is a typical British tar. His cocked hat is reversed, revealing short cut hair. A yellow neckcloth is tied about his neck, draping onto a double breasted jacket that ends at the waist with slashed cuffs buttoned closed. Unusually tight fitting trousers, decorated with vertical stripes, is sewn with a broad fall fly. Tucked under his arm is a stick.

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.