Jack hove down - With a Grog Blossom Fever, (c 1805)

Jack Hove Down - With a Grog Blossom Fever. Thomas Tegg, London, c. 1805. Royal Museums Greenwich.

Today's image is a very expressive caricature of a sailor who's had too much to drink, arguing with the physician tending to him. This image is from one of Thomas Tegg's early 19th c. series of caricatures.

'hold---I must stop your Grog Jack---it excites those impulses, and concussions of the Thorax, which a company Ternutation by which means You are in a sort of a kind of a Situation---that Your head must be-Shaved- I shall take from you only 20 oz of Blood-then swallow this Draught and Box of Pills, and I shall administer to You a Clyster.

'Stop my Grog-Belay there Doctor---Shiver my timbers but your lingo bothers me-You May batter my Hull as long as you like, but I'll be d--'nd if You ever board me with your Clyster pipe.

Jack lies in his hammock under a patterned green blanket in a blue and white striped shirt, a bottle of grog in one hand. On his head he wears a simple brown tube cap, gathered at the top, from which peeks out wavy brown hair. His blue jacket lies on the deck, with a partially-unbuttoned mariner's cuff visible - two buttons buttoned, two unbuttoned. His shirt is worn with narrow cuffs closed with sleeve buttons, and his broad collar spreads over a red handkerchief tied below his breastbone.

In Jack's sea chest are a number of labeled items, including one named "pig tail"! [edited to add: as a kind reader pointed out, it's a type of tobacco!]

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.

Lacing in Style, 1819

"Lacing in Style". London: 1819. Royal Museums Greenwich.

Today we jump forward in  time to 1819 with this great satirical T. Teagg print from 1819: "Lacing in Style, or A Dandy Midshipman preparing for Attraction". A parody of the exaggerated genteel male fashions of the late 1810s, this print shows a midshipman getting his fashionably-waspish waist by having sailors on a capstan winching him tight. The fashion was much-mocked: as the Marine says, "Stays!!! Well, I've a good mind to get petticoats!"

While their officer follow the vagaries of civilian fashion, the Royal Navy sailors on deck reflect the slow, steady change in nautical fashion as well. Closing out the era this blog covers, these sailors are beginning to show many of the signs of the modest revolution sailor fashion undergoes after the end of the Napoleonic Wars: long queues, Guernsey frocks, long trousers that drag on the ground at the heel, and tie shoes.

The sailor sitting on the gun smoking a pipe wears little black pumps, white socks, striped red and white trousers, a blue jacket, and a shapeless black round hat. His queued hair was left uncolored by the artist, making it look blond with a white queue tie.

The four sailors at the capstan are dressed in a motley of clothes: red and white striped trousers, blue trousers, white trousers; a red and white striped Guernsey frock, blue jackets; a tightly-tied white cravat, a loosely-tied red handkerchief. Their little black pumps are tied. The sailor with his back to the viewer has a long, thick brown queue, and the other three sailors look like they have short hair. Two wear black round hats, one wears what looks like a brown "carpenter's cap", and the fourth man is bareheaded.

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.

Calm, 1812 (JMW Turner)

JMW Turner; Calm
© Tate Photographic Rights © Tate (2016), CC-BY-NC-ND 3.0 (Unported),
The original can be viewed at the Tate by clicking here.
1812

I don't mean to turn this into the JMW Turner Draws Men On Boats Blog or a study of fishermen's clothing - though the notions have a certain appeal - but once again a great print from Turner's "Liber Studiorum" pulled me back. In it fishermen drift on a glassy sea, their spread sails hanging limply. The aquatint/mezzotint process and warm ink gives the scene considerable depth, with the boats in the background shown in lighter tones, while the fishermen appear almost black.

Detail from JMW Turner's "Calm"
©Tate Photographic Rights ©Tate (2016), CC-BY-NC-ND 3.0 (Unported),
The original can be viewed at the Tate by clicking here.
1812

I haven't seen any knit caps in the artwork I've been studying so far (largely caricatures from 1797-1807, so a fairly limited slice of nautical art, to be fair), so the cap in "Marine Dabblers" and today's print have stuck out. The waterman's long queue is striking as well.

The unusual clothing and the contents of the rest of the Liber Studiorum make me suspect that this might be a painting of continental fishermen and thus perhaps not appropriate to include with the rest of my English-speaking sailor content, so I'm not tagging it in with everything else and am including using it as an end-of-the-month "outside the usual subject matter" posts.

JMW Turner's Sketches of Sailors and Marines: 1805

JMW Turner; The ‘Victory’: Starboard Side
© Tate Photographic Rights © Tate (2016), CC-BY-NC-ND 3.0 (Unported),
The original can be viewed at the Tate by clicking here.
1805

Continuing my three-part series on JMW Turner's paintings of the Battle of Trafalgar, today we look at some of Turner's sketches. In 1805 Turner made a special trip to sketch the Victory as she entered the Medway, and subsequently made a large number of detailed studies and watercolor studies onboard the ship, as well as studies of officers, sailors, and marines of Victory and Temeraire. These sketches, now entitled the "Nelson sketchbook" (and available to view online at The Tate), subsequently became the basis for his 1806 painting of The Battle of Trafalgar, which I looked at last week. These sketches from life let us see how Turner interpreted what he was seeing, without the intervening artifice of his studio.



JMW Turner; Sailors and Marines
© Tate Photographic Rights © Tate (2016), CC-BY-NC-ND 3.0 (Unported),
The original can be viewed at the Tate by clicking here.
1805

These men are identified by the catalog record as two sailors on the left and three marines on the right. Taking the catalog at its word, the two men identified as sailors have long hair tied back into thick queues that end mid-back.

The catalog identifies them as wearing striped waistcoats, though they may also be wearing striped shirts or the machine-knit over-garment called a Guernsey frock. The stripes on the right arm of the top left sailor may be showing the pleating of his sleeve. The sailor in the middle of the drawing is identified as a marine, but dresses almost identically to the sailors in a round hat, waistcoat, and loose trousers.

JMW Turner; Marines, a Seaman and a Separate Sketch of a Man’s Face
© Tate Photographic Rights © Tate (2016), CC-BY-NC-ND 3.0 (Unported),
The original can be viewed at the Tate by clicking here.
1805

The men in this painting are more clearly marines. The man who is clearly a sailor has a long, thick queue that falls to the small of his back and a round hat with a broad, slightly conical crown and broad brim - perhaps a straw hat. 

After looking at these sketches it's clear that the sailors, their queues, and their hats look remarkably similar to the sailors that appear in Turner's final painting:

Detail from JMW Turner's The Battle of Trafalgar... 
© Tate Photographic Rights © Tate (2016), CC-BY-NC-ND 3.0 (Unported), 
The original can be at the Tate viewed by clicking here.

The Battle of Trafalgar, JMW Turner, 1806

JMW Turner;
The Battle of Trafalgar, as Seen from the Mizen Starboard Shrouds of the Victory;
© Tate Photographic Rights © Tate (2016), CC-BY-NC-ND 3.0 (Unported),
The original can be at the Tate viewed by clicking here.

Today Napoleonic Tars celebrates the 211th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar with its first foray into the medium of oil on canvas: J.M.W. Turner's "The Battle of Trafalgar, as Seen from the Mizen Starboard Shrouds of the Victory". This painting shows the moment of Nelson's fall, the officers and men who rushed to support him, the wounded Lieutenant Pasco being carried from the deck, and the sniper in the French top firing.

The battle - and specific subjects such as the death of Lord Nelson - was a frequent subject of artists in the 19th century, but Turner's 1806 work is one of the earlier large-scale paintings and a good place to begin looking at how artists portrayed the clothing English sailors wore in the battle.

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851) was a prolific English Romantic landscape painter who is also well known for his nautical scenes such as "The Fighting Temeraire" and "The Slave Ship". Turned painted the Battle of Trafalgar twice, first in 1806 and again in 1824. Both paintings depart from the historical events; the 1806 painting simultaneously combines the flash of the sniper's muzzle in the French top with Nelson having already turned and fallen. Despite this inaccuracy, the Tate's caption of the 1806 painting notes,

Turner made close observation of the ships shown here, but the painting of the battle in which Admiral Nelson died is not simply detailed reportage. Sails and cannon smoke arrest the eye, creating a claustrophobic backdrop, while the action appears to thrust outwards. The viewer is confronted by both the chaos of battle and the intimate tragedy of Nelson’s final moments. A contemporary reviewer termed this a ‘British epic picture...the first picture of the kind that has ever...been exhibited’.

The Tate's catalogue entry also quotes The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner" (Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll. New Haven and London: 1984)

Turner made a special trip to sketch the Victory as she entered the Medway and subsequently made a large number of detailed studies on board the ship in the ‘Nelson’ sketchbook (LXXXIX). There are also two larger studies of the deck of the Victory in the British Museum (CXX-c, and the Vaughan Bequest CXXI-S, repr. exh. cat. R.A. 1974, p. 60 no. 96).  Farington recorded on 3 June 1806 that ‘Turner's I went to and saw His picture of the Battle of Trafalgar. It appeared to me to be a very crude, unfinished performance, the figures miserably bad.’   

Perhaps because he had been so keen to show the picture as soon as possible after the event Turner seems to have felt the need to work on it further before exhibiting it again in 1808. According to the writer, probably John Landseer, of a long review in the Review of Publications of Art for 1808, ‘The picture appears more powerful both in respect of chiaroscuro and colour than when we formerly saw it in Mr. Turner's gallery, and has evidently been since revised and very much improved by the author’. Describing the picture as ‘a British epic picture’ the writer called it ‘the first picture of the kind that has ever, to our knowledge, been exhibited’. ‘Mr. Turner ... has detailed the death of his hero, while he has suggested the whole of a great naval victory, which we believe has never before been successfully accomplished, if it has been before attempted, in a single picture.’ 

Whatever the painting may have looked like originally, its 1808 rework leaves it a striking scene that captures the feel of a critical moment in the battle. Turner's treatment of the moment stands in contrast to the other more intimate historic paintings of fallen heroes that he would have been familiar with, such as West's The Death of General Wolfe (1770) and Copley's The Death of Major Pierson (1783), and in even starker contrast to West's 1806 painting of the death of Lord Nelson and Devis's 1807 treatment of the same subject. All these paintings place the death of their hero - Nelson or otherwise - at the center of the action, whereas Turner's portrayal of the death of Lord Nelson is almost more in line with Bruegel's Landscape with the Fall of Icarus: an important moment lost in a larger world.

The ongoing battle consumes much of the frame of the painting, as the visual confusion of smoke, distance, and the towering spars and masts of multiple ships obscures Nelson's fall - so much that the painting was criticized by a contemporary for being about mere "shipping" instead of the "MURDER" of a national hero.

The scale of Turner's painting makes it difficult to distinguish the figures on Victory's deck, and Turner’s particular arrangement of the figures on deck is an imaginary reconstruction. Fortunately for us his exhibit key to the painting survives.

JMW Turner; Key to
'The Battle of Trafalgar, as Seen from the Mizen Starboard Shrouds of the Victory';
© Tate Photographic Rights © Tate (2016), CC-BY-NC-ND 3.0 (Unported),
The original can be viewed at the Tate by clicking here.

Two of the men are identified as sailors, namely "1. ‘Marshall’ [John Marshall, Able Seaman or William Marshall, Ordinary Seaman. Poop deck, kneeling to left of the flag in left foreground]" and "3. ‘Marshall Signals Man’ [see 1 above, or another John, Able Seaman. Poop deck, holding flag rope]." Turner's quick sketch also gives us an artist's quick impression of the essence of a sailor, which comes as no surprise: blue jackets and round hats.

Detail from JMW Turner's Key to 
'The Battle of Trafalgar, as Seen from the Mizen Starboard Shrouds of the Victory'; 
© Tate Photographic Rights © Tate (2016), CC-BY-NC-ND 3.0 (Unported),
The original can be viewed at the Tate by clicking here.

Detail from JMW Turner's Key to 
'The Battle of Trafalgar, as Seen from the Mizen Starboard Shrouds of the Victory'; 
© Tate Photographic Rights © Tate (2016), CC-BY-NC-ND 3.0 (Unported),
The original can be viewed at the Tate by clicking here.

David Blayney Brown, ‘Key to ‘The Battle of Trafalgar, as Seen from the Mizen Starboard Shrouds of the Victory’ 1806 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, April 2006, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-key-to-the-battle-of-trafalgar-as-seen-from-the-mizen-r1139293, accessed 20 October 2016.

Detail from JMW Turner's The Battle of Trafalgar... 
© Tate Photographic Rights © Tate (2016), CC-BY-NC-ND 3.0 (Unported), 
The original can be at the Tate viewed by clicking here.

Despite its scale the finished painting shows some fascinating glimpses of the sailors on Victory's deck. In this detail a sailor on the left with his back to the viewer wears a straw hat with a dark ribbon around the base of the crown, a long, thick queue that falls to his shoulder blades, and a checked shirt. Helping him is another man, bare-headed with shirt hair, and also in a checked shirt. A bare-headed kneeling man with short hair identified in Turner's key as an able seaman wears a blue jacket and trousers with black shoes. A man with his hand on a crate wears a straw hat and black jacket with a lighter-colored garment beneath. Other figures in the background that may be sailors wear queues, shirts without waistcoats, and blue jackets.

Detail from JMW Turner's The Battle of Trafalgar... 
© Tate Photographic Rights © Tate (2016), CC-BY-NC-ND 3.0 (Unported), 
The original can be at the Tate viewed by clicking here.

In this detail a bareheaded sailor on the right bends over; he also wears a checked shirt. A small kneeling figure by the mast with his back to the viewer may be a sailor; he wears a round hat with a queue.

In 1805 Turner filled a sketchbook with drawings from life of Victory and Temeraire, along with studies of officers, sailors, and marines; these drawings became the basis for his painting. Stay tuned for Monday, when I'll be looking at Turner's sketches of sailors from Victory. Also stay tuned for next Friday, when I'll compare and contrast Turner's 1806 painting to his 1824 treatment of the Battle of Trafalgar.

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.

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.

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.