Watermen, 1807

I've speculated about potential differences between the clothing of coastal watermen, river bargemen, or fishermen versus the clothing of blue-water sailors before, so today's image is of watermen!

"Watermen", John Augustus Atkinson. London: 1807. British Museum.

Once again drawing from "A Picturesque Representation of the Costumes of Great Britain", this 1807 print depicts two watermen with a boat. One man wrangles with the boat's bow or balances it, while the other, hat off, looks like he's trying to drum up a customer, with a pair of oars leaning against the wall behind him.

The man pushing the boat into the water is dressed much like a sailor - a round hat with curled sides, short hair, a neck-cloth with the back worn outside his shirt, breeches, and tie shoes.

The man offering his boat to passers-by has a round hat, short-cropped hair, a big neck cloth, a waistcoat, breeches, and buckled shoes. His coat is full skirted, with a badge on his left arm showing him to be a London waterman. Turn back mariner's cuffs (worn closed) complete his sleeves.

Outside of the bargeman's badge these two men specifically identified as watermen aren't enormously different in their dress from sailors. However, Atkinson portrays other sailors in his series of engravings in trousers, often with long queued hair, so their breeches and short hair differentiate them in this series at least.

Post captain, 1807

Post Captain. John Augustus Atkinson. London, England: 1807. British Museum.

Today I return to A Picturesque Representation of the Costumes of Great Britain. This interesting romantic vignette of shipboard life shows an officer standing on the deck of a ship waving a speaking  trumpet, though of course what interests me is the two sailors firing a cannon in the background.

The two sailors look like every movie stereotype of the early 19th century sailor out there! One is bare-headed and sports a long, thick queue that reaches to the bottom of his back, and the other wears a kerchief tied around his head while also having another loosely tied around hie neck). Both have taken off their jackets and their shirtsleeves are rolled up; the queued man wears a waistcoat. They wear loose trousers and shoes - the standing man can be seen to have buckled shoes.

Heaving the Lead, 1807

"Heaving the Lead". London: 1807. British Museum.

My third image from John Augustus's Atkinson's print series "A picturesque representation of the costumes of Great Britain"is one many of you might be familiar with: "Heaving the Lead". This 1807 print shows a sailor standing in the chains, using a lead line to measure the depth of the water.

The simple depiction of a sailor performing a mundane, omnipresent part of shipboard life have made this image a popular one for reuse, and it has been reproduced in numerous books covering the time period from the 18th century throughout the late 19th. Its clear composition also makes it a popular candidate for being copied by different engravers for books throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries - for example, this plate in the 1913 book "Ships and Ways of other Days".

Colored versions of this image are the most popularly-used for reproduction, so for my close analysis of  this image I'm using this copy in the collection of the British Library. The colored version also makes it clearer to see the two sailors working inboard.

"Heaving the Lead". London: 1807. British Library. 

The sailor heaving the lead wears black shoes with square white buckles. His white trousers, cut tight around the knee, are long and come down to the heels of his shoes, with a broad fall. He wears a double-breasted blue jacket worn shut, with small yellow buttons. His mariner's cuffs have three buttons, and one on his left wrist is worn undone. His neck cloth is red with white spots, tied up close to his neck with the ends hanging out. From underneath his blue jacket a checked shirt with a narrow cuff can be seen at his wrists.

On his head he wears a straw hat - far less commonly portrayed by artists than black round hats. A pipe is stuck into the band. The hat has a slightly-rounded top and a tightly-curved brim. It is of medium height, neither a low like a modern "Amish" style hat nor as tall as a "top" hat. Glimpsed under the hat is a bit of short, curly brown hair

In the background one sailor wears white trousers cut full in the lower leg and tight around the knee, with a checked shirt, a neck cloth of indiscriminate color, and a black round hat,

The other sailor wears white trousers, a blue jacket, and a black hat.

Getting up a kedge anchor, 1807

"Getting Up a Kedge Anchor." London: 1807. British Museum.

Today's post is another one from John Augustus's Atkinson's series of prints on "A picturesque representation of the costumes of Great Britain", published from 1807-1808. This engraving from 1807 shows four men in a small boat pulling up an anchor.

Two of the sailors have their backs turned to us, showing long, thick queues. They're both wearing trousers, and the queued man on the left has what looks like a belt on around his waist. The two men facing the viewer wear knotted neck-cloths. Three of the sailors look to be wearing jackets, while the man with his belt visible is both bare-headed and possibly in his shirt.

Two of the sailors wear low-crowned round hats with curled brims. The man getting up the kedge anchor has on the same sort of split-top cloth cap spotted in Monday's post "Sailors" from the same series of engraving, which reader CS suggested might be a carpenter's hat. His jacket has mariner's cuffs, worn closed.

Sailors, 1807

"Sailors". John Augustus Atkinson, London, 1807. British Museum.

This weeks posts will look at some plates containing sailors as portrayed in John Augustus's Atkinson's series of prints on "A picturesque representation of the costumes of Great Britain", published from 1807-1808. The series is more serious than caricatures, but at the same time it does rely on romantic imagery, which might not be wholly accurate to life.

Today's post shows four sailors on the shore talking, two talking in the foreground and two pushing a boat into the water in the background.

The man with his back to the viewer wears a low-crowned round hat with a curled brim. His hair is worn long in a thick queue that reaches to mid-back, clearly tied with a thick tape or ribbon. His jacket, with a turned-down collar and mariner's cuffs worn unbuttoned, is cut short, showing a gap of shirt between his jacket and the waistband of his trousers. His trousers rest slightly above his hips and are tied in the back, cut tight in the leg but loose at the ankle. They're long, reaching to his heels and covering his shoes.

The seated man he's speaking to is smoking a pipe and wearing a hat style I'm unfamiliar with. He wears a very large handkerchief tied loosely around the neck, and a voluminous smock that reaches almost to his knees. On his legs he wears tight trousers or what might be sea boots - it was hard for me to tell. His shoes are tied.

In the background two more sailors push a boat into the water. One of them wears long, queued hair and a jacket with a high-cut waist.  They both wear round hats and trousers that are tight in the leg and loose at the ankle.

Sailors in a Calm, 1807

"Sailors in a Calm". London: Thomas Tegg, 1807. British Museum.

Today's print is another scene published by both the London publisher Thomas Tegg (after George Woodward), and the Dublin publisher M. Cleary, in 1807. The scene depicts a popular subject for making fun of sailors, namely their utter inability to ride horses or judge horseflesh.

In this scene three sailors on a horse with their luggage (which includes a small cask, a glass bottle of something almost certainly in the alcohol line, and a lot of white clay pipes - almost everything needed for a good time) meet a sailor walking along the road with his bundle slung on his stick. The sailors aboard the horse are complaining about how they can't get her to start walking, which the sailor on foot responds to by asking why they decided to ride:

"Her lights are stove in, her knee timbers all shattered, scarse a bit of running tackle to her Bowsprit. & not an inch of rope left to take her in tow. & I'll be damn'd if you don't ship yourselves aboard a tighter vessel. You won't hove in sight of Portsmouth for a Month."

"Sailors in a Calm". Dublin: M. Cleary. C. 1807. Royal Museums Greenwich.

"Sailors in a Calm." Dublin: M. Cleary. C. 1807. V&A Museum.

The three print versions offer a satisfying number of color variations on sailor's clothing, but also have some interesting commonalities: all the sailors have blue hat ribbons and rosettes. Their jackets vary from blue, green, and red, and their trousers from red striped, blue striped, solid blue, and white. Their neck cloths include yellow, red, and black, and their hair is all short and brown, with some sailors sporting straight hair instead of the usual curly.

The sailors defence, 1807

"The Sailors Defence". London: 1807. Lewis Walpole Library.

In addition to being bad at riding horses, bad judges of horseflesh, speaking in impenetrable nautical jargon, being mouthy to parsons, and disliking French refinements, another caricature trope about sailors is that they're belligerent and prone to fighting! This stereotype was touched upon in The Indignant Tar (1804), and today we have yet another sailor who has gotten hauled before a magistrate for hitting someone. This caricature is also by Woodward, and from 1807.


A large, solid sailor stands before a magistrate, while a thin man with a handkerchief tied like a bandage over one eye stands in the background. A seated magistrate inquires of Jack:

I really wonder you are not ashamed of yourself. A man of your athletic make to beat a poor fellow - so much interior to you in point of size what have you to say for yourself

And Jack replies:

Please your Magistrates worship and Glory - he run foul of my Larboard side, as I was steering through Wapping-so I hove him a gentle topper & knock'd him down. but I meant no harm for as I hope to see salt water again I had nothing at all in my hand but my fist.

The Walpole Library has two color versions of this print. Jack is stylishly dressed in his shore-going clothing, and the first color version has added lots of great details to his clothing: peeping out between striped trousers of a narrow red stripe over white and pointy-toed shoes with large rectangular white buckles he wears blue and white striped stockings, and two keys and a fob painted yellow hang from a narrow yellow ribbon or chain at his waist.


His blue jacket has finely-painted small yellow buttons, double breasted up the front and unbuttoned halfway, and with four visible on one sleeve, two unbuttoned. His orange waistcoat is also unbuttoned halfway up the front, with his yellow neck handkerchief tied in a bow around his collarbone and the short ends hanging out of the jacket. Under it all a white shirt with an upright collar is visible coming up to his cheeks. His hair is short, brown, and curly.


In his one hand the sailor holds a black round hat with a blue rosette; the inside is visible, showing a drawstring lining. It's colored in a dull brown wash, leaving the impression of a natural linen lining and paper-lined crown. The sailor's other hand, clenched in a fist, is indeed empty of a stick.

In this second color version from the Walpole Library the sailor's clothing is largely the same, but much more crudely painted, showing what a difference a lazier colorist can make in one's impression of sailor's clothing: the red stripes on Jack's trousers are much wider, his jacket is colored in a single blue wash and lacks the details of gold buttons, his waistcoat is white like his shirt, and his neck stock is a watery black like his hat. Still, his stockings are striped in blue and white, his rosette is blue, and the fobs at his waist is colored with a spot of yellow paint while the ribbon is painted in the same purple as the coat of his victim.

The Welch Sailor's Mistake or Tars in Conversation, c. 1807

"The Welch Sailor's Mistake or Tars in Conversation." London: 1807. Lewis Walpole Library.

Today's image is another engraving from Woodward's caricature magazine, the Hudibrastic Mirror. This image makes fun of stereotypes of Welshmen, and features five sailors enjoying themselves on the deck of a ship. The dialogue is as follows:

"-And so then do you see David we sprung a leak"

"Cot pless us - and save us - did you! and a ferry coot fetchitable it is. I should have liked to have had a pit with you."

The jug at the English sailor's feet is labeled "Real oronooko" - a type of rum.

Although identified as Welsh, David dresses no differently than the other sailors - in fact he wears his clothes in the same fashion as the sailor on the far right, and is colored the same way: buckled shoes, red and white striped trousers, a double-breasted white waistcoat, blue jacket worn open, black neck-cloth worn with the knot around the collarbone and the ends hanging loose, and a big squashy black round hat with a blue ribbon and rosette.


The other two sailors on the left wear black round hats without ribbons or rosettes, black neck-cloths, and blue jackets. One sailor can be seen as having a white waistcoat, and the other is wearing blue trousers and black shoes with white buckles.

The English sailor telling his story is dressed the same as the sailor on the far right except he has a blue hatband and is smoking a pipe. All the visible cuffs have four or five small buttons, and the sailors all have short, brown curls hair, except for David, who is painted with blond hair (a rare choice for a colorist for a sailor in a caricature), and the sailor on the far right might be wearing a bobwig.

The Sailor and the Quack Doctor, c. 1807

The Sailor and the Quack Doctor. London. Lewis Walpole Library.

I return today to the Lewis Walpole Library's collection and Woodward and Cruickshank's caricature magazine, the Hudibrastic Mirror. Published beginning in 1807, the magazine consisted of several volumes published over several years. This print is from an earlier volume and is dated as [1807] by the Walpole library's catalog.

In this image the sailor and a quack doctor are in the doctor's consulting room. The sailor has a bandage over his forehead, eye, and cheek, and carries a paper entitled "List of Cures". Behind the sailor is a cupboard with a skeleton. Jack says, speaking in nautical-laced jargon as is typical for caricatures,

"You must know Doctor I have got a bit of a Confusion on my larboard cheek from a chance shot, and as I dont think it of consequence enough for our Ship's surgeon, I bore down to you, after overhauling a long list of your cures - but I suppose front the messmate in the Cabin there, you dont always make a return of the Killed and Wounded?"

The quack in his physical wig and breeches, replies,

"Sir, my rule of practice is this, there is pen, ink, and paper, - sign a certificate of your cure, and I'll take you in hand immediately on paying down two Guineas!"

 Jack's hat is of the large, oversized "squashy" kind where the crown is wider than the brim. He carries a thick stick under his arm, and over a white shirt his blue jacket is worn closed with a double row of little buttons. On his feet he wears white socks and black buckle shoes, with the strap on his left foot trained through a white buckle. 

In this copy Jack's hair is white, making me suspect that between the color and the shape it might be a wig. His red handkerchief is worn around his neck with the knot under his throat and the ends hanging down to his belly. His trousers are striped in red and white.

Alternate copy. Lewis Walpole Library.

In this copy Jack's wig is brown. His handkerchief is black, and his trousers are blue.

Proof Positive or no Deceiving a Sailor, 1807

"Proof Positive or no Deceiving a Sailor."
"The caricature magazine, or Hudibrastic mirror." G.M. Woodward: London, 1807.
The Lewis Walpole Library.

Mocking the inability of sailors to ride or judge horseflesh was a common trope of caricatures, seen in several posts already. Today's image from 1807 continues this mockery with another sailor displeased with his mount.

Our sailor wears a round hat with a tall, straight crown with a very wide blue ribbon and enormous cockade, with short, curly red hair peeking out underneath. His blue jacket has small blue buttons and his black handkerchief is tied tightly around his neck. Broadfall trousers with red stripes, white stockings, and black pumps with big gold buckles complete the look. Instead of a sturdy stick the sailor holds a thin riding whip in his hand.

Making a sailor a free mason, 1807

"Making a Sailor a Free Mason." London : Pub. by T. Tegg, [1807].
The Lewis Walpole Library.

Today's caricature from 1807 is another print of a sailor where I have multiple colorizations to look at, giving several perspectives on what assumptions early 19th c. colorists had about the colors of sailor clothing. This print is from The Caricature Magazine, or Hudibrastic Mirror, of which Volume I began publication in 1807.


Our sailor Benjamin Block wishes to become a Freemason, and is kneeling on a cushion surrounded by men in aprons with masonic symbols lying on the floor. He has suffered the indignity of having his shirt-tails pulled out and "cut and marked with divers mysteries signs, and tangents", and all that remains of his initiation is for him to be blindfolded and have some business with a red hot poker, which he objects to most strenuously. While there is a good deal more to be said about the context of the scene and this cartoon I will leave that for a future date when I am more familiar with my subject material.


In all three versions the sailor wears black shoes with big buckles, white stockings, and a blue jacket with buttons painted blue. His dress varies mainly in the color of his trousers and his handkerchief.

In this version Jack's trousers are white with no colorization, just the black lines of the etching. His neckstock is white, which makes it look like a ruffled-front shirt, and his shoe buckles are gold.

In this version Jack's trousers are striped white and blue, his handkerchief is red, and his shoe buckles are white metal.

In this version Jack's trousers are striped white and red, his handkerchief is black with some white shirt showing, and his shoe buckles are white metal. Also unique to this colorization is that Jack's straight, spiky hair is black instead of brown.

Jack Junk embarking on a cruize, 1807

"Jack Junk embarking on a cruize." Pub. by Sidebotham, Sackville St., London. 1807.
Lewis Walpole Library.

Today's image is a caricature from 1807. Jack Junk attempts to mount a house to go to Leather Head, except his left foot is in the right stirrup, which would put him on the horse backwards. The ostler points this out to Jack, saying "- "Jack, you don't mount the horse the right way, but it is Sailor-like to look one way and Row another!!"


Horsemanship aside, there is no mistaking Jack for anything but a sailor. He wears a black round hat with a higher, less-squashy crown than hats from earlier in the decade with a brim that curves gently upward, with a broad blue hatband and a rosette at the back of the hat. His neck-cloth is yellow with red spots, draped broadly over his back. His blue jacket has small gold buttons, three on each cuff and ten visible on the front. His trousers have broad red and white stripes, and on his feet he wears white stockings and black shoes closed with black ties. In his hand he carries the sailor's stick.


Of note is his hair: broad brown sideburns and flowing brown hair that is gathered into a thin black queue reaching all the way down to the seat of his trousers. The queue is made of narrow black ribbon or tape and tied in a bow at the top of the queue.

A Sailor Sitting for his Miniature, 1807

“A Sailor Sitting for his Miniature.” Woodward & Roberts, 1807.
Lewis Walpole Library.

In this cartoon our Jack Tar sits impatiently to have his portrait painted, dressed in his finest and with a bowl of punch at hand. He harangues the painter in the usual cartoon trope of over-the-top sailor jargon liberally salted with nautical phrases and vocabulary - "[A]nd lay in plenty of the true blue about the jacket - and Harkee, young one, don't forget the beauty-spot on the larboard side of my Cheek."


Jack's shore-going rig consists of a black round hat with a blue ribbon and bow around the crown, with curly brown hair peeking out underneath and a clay pipe in his mouth. His double-breasted blue jacket has cloth-covered buttons and his cuffs are worn unbuttoned at the wrist with five buttons. His shirt isn’t visible, but around his neck hangs a loosely-tied black handkerchief. A gold fob hangs down below his jacket, resting on his red and white striped trousers. On his feet he wears white socks or stockings and pointed toe black shoes with oval buckles.