page_title: Piracy in the Atlantic World
section_title: Clothing
hierarchical_section_title: Piracy in the Atlantic World / The life of a pirate / Clothing
caption_attribution_description: Captain Keitt: illustration of a pirate captain on deck.
context_page_description: Piracy was a phenomenon that was not limited to the Caribbean region. Golden Age pirates roamed off the coast of North America, Africa and the Caribbean.
context_section_description: No standard issue uniforms for anyone on board a vessel were issued prior to 1748 in the British royal Navy. Clothing was somewhat standardized by 1623 when it was made possible for sailors to purchase clothing at fixed prices from the Navy Commissioners. The selection was not extensive; items included: Monmouth capps, Red Caps, Yarne Stockings, Irish Stockings, Blew Shirts, White Shirts, Cotton Waistcoats, Cotton Drawers, Neats Leather Shoes, Blew Neck Clothes, Canvas Suites, Ruggs of one breadth, and Blew Suites. Until 1664, sailors that were pressed into the Navy were not given any clothing, forced to use what clothes they had on their backs until accumulating several months of pay when they could then buy clothing.
  Pirates of the early eighteenth century and prior wore much the same clothing as any sailors. Clothing, like any useful tangible good, when captured as booty, would be distributed out. Calico Jack Rackham was known for his "flamboyant dress." Sir Richard Hawkins, the famous Elizabethan privateer advocated wearing armor in battle while at sea. Records indicate that there were not nearly enough pieces of armor for all to wear, so it likely was for his officers and himself.  Woolen clothing was worn in more extreme latitudes.
  Like in the stories of Anne Bonny and Mary Read, women, often when on a vessel would don men's clothing. This was immortalized in an English folk song, "My yellow locks I will cut off, men's clothing will put on, And I will go along with you and be your waiting-man."
caption: Howard Pyle's 20th century depiction of a pirate captain
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