The Washington herald., 1913-02-02

miraf John Benbow. master OF the Brit
ish fleet under Admiral Russell. in the
battles of Barfieur and La Hogue had
his body encased in metal; or. coming
down to modern times, We find Eng
lands choicest cavalry not only wearing
steel helmet, but having the body pro-
tected by the same metal
That some style of uniformity in dress
had been adopted for our man-o'-wars-
men in 1872 is shown by the fact that
when the United States reached New
York, after her victory over the Mace
donian, the Yankee tars had a parade
on shore. and the local newspapers made
mention of their new uniforms'-which
were described as consisting OF "a blue
jacket. a scarlet waistcoat. neck-hand-
kerchiefs, and glazed hats" II Is not
likely that this was the style OF dress
they wore in the action, for besides the
the newspapers reference to new uni
forms. We must remember that 5000 in
prize-money was awarded to the United
States people and we may presume that
her sailors had the good sense to invest
part of their share in new outfits.
While following. and improving on. the
example set by the English in naval
matters. the Americans, in one particu-
lar at least, did not initiate their cousins
and that was in the singular Gus
tom of dressing the crews in some con-
fornity to the name of their ship. Not
that this was general practice in
the British service but It is of record
that II occurred in special cases. Anson.
We know. had his gigs crew arrsyed like
Thames watermen-scarlet Jackets. blue
silk vests, and silver badges on their
arms-suggestive of the cruiser Thames.
Capt. Wallace Houston. of the Trinco-
malice, as late as 1854. dressed his crew
in red shirts and fancy caps. while nine
years before that the Blazers men wore
blue and white striped guernseys.
Remembering these well-authenticated
instances We can more readily believe
how Commander wilmot'' OF the Harle-
quin. in 1858, disported his boats crew
as hariequins, and how the commander
of II. NJ S. Tulip dressed his ships COM
pany in green. with an imitation tulip.
reversed for their caps. and his gigs
crew in tiger skins to resemble Indians,
with short paddles instead of oars
One Landsman's Dress.
We get further evidence of the lack of
uniformity Of dress among our militant
sailors of this period in the journal Of
a New England lad. who. in 1874 enlist
ed in one of the most famous armed
craft of his day. Describing a coat,
worn by the fifer of the ship "a young
giant from the Berkshire Hills of Massa-
our chronicler says: His coat
was of the common. country. homespun
once, no doubt, at
home even for Sunday. but quite the re-
verse aboard ship The tailor had not
stinted his cloth in the whole. but on
the contrary, had been most liberal, even
to extravaganza with one part, while,
TO check his prodigality, he had cab
baged from another to the extent of mig
gardly meanness Fo instance, the skirts
had the greatest share of the cloth orig
inally intended for the coat. and had
taken their starting place, high up in the
back, tapering of to a point somewhere
in the region of the owners heels.
I'm his many gyrations about the roll
ing deck, they swept circle of fathom
OF more In each twirl of the double
rigged monkey; as not inaptly dubbed
by the lovers of mischief. who took the
pure spirit of MISUNDERSTANDING the
owner could never walk the deck like
sailor with such an outlandish rig as
this. They took a half circling sweep
with the knife twhen the owner was not
severing the skirts, and leav-
ing little on the fifer but the collar and
the red flannel back
ing of the lwaistcoat, underneath which
loomed up like the moon through a hazy
Americans need feel in no way abash-
ed by the incongruous apparel OF this
Berkshire lad in his first essay on the