An Admiral's Porter, 1790

An Admiral's Porter, George Woodward, 1790, Wellcome Library.

Two injured veteran sailors are now employed by an Admiral to carry messages for him. They stand at the door of a town house, where a liveried servant and an aggressive hound look at the pair disapprovingly.

Both sailors wear their hair short and have black round hats with unusually wide brims, but otherwise are dressed quite differently. The sailor on the left wears a red coat with a collar, buttons painted yellow, and flap pockets. He wears a white cravat, light brown slops, white stockings, and rounded-toe shoes with round white buckles. He carries his arm in a sling.

The one-legged sailor to the right wears a blue short jacket with buttons painted yellow, mariner's cuffs with the first button worn unbuttoned, and a broad turned-down collar. His neckerchief is white and red spotted. He wears red striped trousers, and on his remaining foot a white stocking and a pointed-toe shoe with a square white buckle.

Today's image was originally shared on British Tars: 1740-1790, and was posted there on August 19, 2014.

Sea Horses of Icy Cape, 1790 (British Tars)

Today's post is shared with permission from British Tars: 1740-1790:

Sea Horses of Icy Cape, M. Brown, 1790, John Carter Brown Library.

"Taken from the book Captain Cook's Voyages Round the World, this engraving depicts a group of tars laying fire into a tightly packed group of walruses (here named "sea horses") in Alaska. Setting aside the humorous expressions on the faces of the seamen and the walruses, we'll dive right in to examining the seamen's clothes.

All of our tars wear plain trousers and close fit short jackets. For those who have their backs turned to us, we see their jackets are without vents or cuffs. The oarsmen amidships show that the jackets have white lapels, and one of them has matching white mariner's cuffs. Though most are without hats, a pair (at the least) wear knit caps, and one rather tall man in the back wears a round hat bound in tape and turned up on one side. It is possible the hat is turned up on both sides, but the perspective here only allows us to speculate."

The Greenwich Pensioner, 1790 (British Tars)

Today's post is courtesy of my brother blog, British Tars: 1740-1790, and was originally covered in this post.

"The Greenwich Pensioner," Charles Dibdin, 1790, Walpole Library.

Greenwich Hospital provided a safety net for the sailors who kept Britain safe and flourishing. Deductions from the pay of merchant and naval sailors helped to provide for their care when they were disabled, as is this man. Dibdin created this piece (which was published by Carrington Bowles) to commemorate those sailors who gave everything for the nation, and to celebrate the way the nation cared for them.
 Our pensioner claims to have sailed on the Rover, a ship that I am fairly certain was invented for this song, as a quick search hasn't turned anything up on an eighteenth century ship rigged naval vessel by that name prior to 1790.
 Jack doesn't wear his slop clothes anymore, but a suit of clothes that hint at his former profession.

A nice cocked hat bound in tape is cocked very far to one side, or perhaps worn backward. The balding pensioner's wile waist is still worn rather short, and he is clearly balding. About his neck is a checked neckerchief, tucked into a single breasted waistcoat. The sleeves of his coat (for it is too long to be called a jacket) end with mariner's cuffs which are also bound in tape.

As you would expect of any good sailor (retired or not), our pensioner carries a stick under his arm and a pipe between his fingers.

The most interesting detail of the entire piece is his finely carved wooden leg. A sort of scoop is fitted atop it to cradle the back of his stump. From there, a belt wraps around his thigh to hold it in place. It is a well turned piece of dark wood. His good leg is fitted with a plain stocking and pointed toe shoe with large rectangular buckle.

The Flowing Can, 1791

"The Flowing Can"
Robert Sawyer, London, 1791.
The Lewis Walpole Library

Today's image is a mezzotint from 1791 and a great example of sailors making merry ashore. Several sailors are gathered in a tavern for dancing, drinking, and lively conversation, offering an intriguing collection of men in their best shore-going rig.

Trained straps again?

The sailor at the center of the image has on a tall-crowned broad-brimmed hat with an unusual decoration - what looks to be white tape bound around the edge. He also sports a thin black queue bound in tape or ribbon. The mariner's cuffs on his dark jacket are worn unbuttoned with a white shirt peeking out underneath, and a big black neck-handkerchief puffs out on his chest. His striped tight-legged trousers end at the ankle, and his pointed-toe shoes have large buckles and loose straps - possibly another example of trained straps?


Two men in the background who may also be sailors sport black round hats and dark-colored jackets.

On the right side of the print sit two more sailors. The man in the back with a round hat and curly hair is kissing a female inhabitant of the tavern, while the man in front holds up a very large mug. He wears a black round hat with light colored string or tape wrapped around the base and curly hair peeping out underneath, a light colored double breasted waistcoat, a spotted handkerchief, a blue jacket, white trousers, and buckled shoes with large oval buckles. Against one leg rests a stick, and he is smoking a white clay pipe.

Sweet Poll of Plymouth, 1790 (British Tars)

Today's post is shared with permission from British Tars: 1740-1790.

"Sweet Poll of Plymouth," Thomas Macklin,
George Shepheard, Henry William Bunbury.
1790, National Maritime Museum.

In his post the author of British Tars writes:

Sweet Poll is a wicked looking prostitute drawing the attention of two tarpawlins and a creepy looking marine. The colorist of this print has done a fairly good job with the shading and careful application of color, except on the marine whose cartridge box blends into his small clothes, and cuffs fail to match the lapels.


This print is at the very tail end of [my] period of examination, and so the sailors look markedly different from those of earlier decades. Notably, both wear straw hats. I know of only one other depiction of sailors from our period of study that clearly and definitely shows a straw hat, and even that source I had to question. This is the first positive and definitive depiction of straw hats being worn by sailors in my period of study, and it comes at the very last year of that period.

Our first jack wears a wide brimmed straw hat, and has his hair bound in a queue (another change from previous decades in which short, bob-style hair was the most common). A blue jacket ending just below the waist and with folded back cuffs rests over a double breasted white jacket with cloth covered buttons. His trousers are white and end at the ankle, showing off pointed toe shoes with rectangular buckles.

His mate wears a straw hat with a shorter brim, and short hair. It appears his hair is without a queue, but not definitely so. A short lack neckerchief hangs over his waistcoat with its horizontal red stripes and cloth covered buttons. The blue jacket is single breasted with cloth covered buttons and an odd folded back cuff that also appears to be a double buttoned mariner's cuff. His trousers are slightly longer than his mates, but still show the same shoes and buckles.

Part of the crew of His Majesty's Ship Guardian, 1790 (British Tars)

Today's post is copied with permission from British Tars: 1740-1790: Part of the crew of His Majesty's Ship Guardian, 1790.



"Part of the crew of His Majesty's Ship Guardian endeavouring to escape in the boats".
Robert Dodd, 1790, National Portrait Gallery (Australia).

"...Robert Dodd's print is somewhat idealized in its portrayal, but decidedly more harrowing. Walls of ice threaten the stranded ship, and the boats are tossed on threatening waves. When the Guardian, bound for New South Wales with convicts aboard, struck ice and was stranded, many of her crew and passengers took to the boats. We see only some of the 259 people that crammed onto the five boats. Of these only fifteen would survive. Riou managed to get ahead of the rapidly gaining water in his hold (at its height, there was sixteen feet of water in his ship) and made it safety. His tale of survival would be the inspiration for the third act of Patrick O'Brian's novel "Desolation Island."

Looking over the larboard rail amidships is Lieutenant Riou. He stands with a certain posture of confidence that the other figures in this piece lack. The men around him scrambling across the deck and down the side into the boats wear trousers, jackets that end at or below the waist, and round hats with narrow brims and tall cylindrical crowns.

Keeping his balance and giving instructions to the men in the boats, the central figure in this detail is Master Celements. His left hand holds an octant, a navigational instrument that will be essential to the survival of the men. The men are ill-equipped for surviving in open arctic waters. Many are without jackets, some without even waistcoats. Many wear loose black neckerchiefs, looser than I am accustomed to seeing in images of sailors. Some have work caps, some round hats with narrow brims and tall cylindrical crows, and one (an oarsman in Master Clements' boat) wears a cloth wrapped around his head. Movies, TV shows, and reenactors often portray sailors with a cloth wrapped around the head, but this is the first image I've seen of it. It is possible that this sailor has bandaged a wound, rather than wearing it for comfort or fashion, but with his back turned toward us, it is difficult to say. The only other figure of note is the tar standing at the mast of his boat, who wears a double breasted jacket and a white neckcloth tied in a fancy sort of manner."

Fighting for the dunghill, or, Jack Tar settling Buonaparte, 1798

Today's print is an iconic image of Jack Tar.



"Fighting for the dunghill, or, Jack Tar settling Buonaparte."
James Gillray, 1798. The Lewis Walpole Library.

This print was issued to celebrate Lord Nelson's victory at Aboukir Bay off the Nile Delta of Egypt in August of 1798. The engraver, James Gillray, sets aside the national personification of "John Bull" and instead embodies British strength with "Jack Tar".


Jack's toe is planted on Malta, which rebelled against French occupation in September of 1798 with support from the British blockade, while the knee of the emaciated Napoleon rests unsteadily on Turkey as blood spurts from his nose - the blows from plump (as shown by his ample belly) Jack's fists have hit their mark.

Part of what makes this image of Jack so ironic is how the details of his dress as drawn by Gillray and the way the print colorist painted them fit so perfectly with modern notions of what a Napoleonic sailor "should" look like: he wear a blue jacket with gold buttons, red waistcoat, tow-colored petticoat breeches over breeches tied at the knee and colored a yellowish light brown, horizontally-striped blue and white stockings, and buckled shoes. His brown hair is short in front with a long queue behind, and his round hat has a blue hatband that reads "Britannia Rules the W[aves]". This is, indeed, Jack Tar - there is no mistaking him for anyone else in such a costume.

A story of a little parson and the sailor, 1797

[A story of a little parson and the sailor]. Richard Newton, 1777-1798.
[England, 1797?]
Lewis Walpole Library.

In this caricature our sailor stands between a little parson and another man, neither of whom seem to be amused by the sailor. A little round hat perches on the sailor's head head showing sparse red hair. A stick is tucked under his arms, and a black handkerchief tied around his neck over his blue jacket with two buttons on each cuff. His broadfall trousers are white with narrow blue stripes, a departure from the usual broad stripes used by print colorists. His pointed-toe shoes have oval buckles, and he wears white stockings.

In the uncolored etching his trousers are shown as striped, indicated by a stippling pattern. The version in the collection of Royal Museums Greenwich is the same except that the sailor's trousers are colored with broad red stripes and his buckles are gold.

Lewis Walpole Library

A battle out of the House, 1798

“A battle out of the House, or, The best way of settling the dispute”.
[Weimar : Im Verlage des Industrie-Comptoirs, 1798]. Lewis Walpole Library.

This caricature drawing shows a boxing match. The onlookers are labeled, and include a soldier, barber, blacksmith, butcher, baker, shoemaker, tailor, and glazier, as well as our sailor, who is visible from the waist-up standing behind the barrier to the ring.


The sailor wears a low-crown black hat with a blue ribbon and blue rosette in it. His white single-breasted waistcoat has white cloth buttons. No buttons are visible on his blue jacket, which has turned-back cuffs. Around his neck is visible a white shirt and a loosely-tied black handkerchief. His short, wavy brown hair is brushed forward around his face, and the head of a wooden stick is tucked under his arm.

My Poll and my Partner Joe, 1790 (British Tars)

Welcome to Napoleonic Tars, an examination of the dress of common sailors in the English-speaking world through primary source images for the period 1790-1820.

To begin I share with permission a post from British Tars: 1740-1790: My Poll and my Partner Joe, 1790.

"My Poll and My Partner Joe," Isaac Cruikshank, 1790, Walpole Library.

British Tars writes:

Cruikshank's print accompanies a ballad drawn from the 1774 opera "The Waterman." It relates the tale of an unnamed waterman who is pressed into service. He spends years at sea, fighting and sailing through trying times. When peace is at last upon him, he returns home to find his wife Poll embracing his friend Joe. He relates that on the shocking site, he "boldly kick'd My POLL and my Partner JOE."

Our unfortunate waterman has curly brown hair that drapes onto his shoulders, under a tall cylindrical crowned round hat. A yellow neckerchief spotted with red hangs down over his double breasted red waistcoat which appears to be tucked into his white slops/petticoat trousers. The telltale blue sailor's jacket has brass buttons along the lapels and closed mariner's cuffs. At his waist is a yellow watch fob, and in his hand is a cudgel.

"My Poll and My Partner Joe," Isaac Cruikshank, 1790, Walpole Library.

In this colorization, the former waterman's hair is white, his neckerchief pink with dark spots, his jacket red with cloth covered buttons, and his waistcoat striped with narrow horizontal blue.