A sailor in hat from the early days of the Navy.

The origins of sailors' hats have had a long and rich history. The circular cap of today has been through many variations, as have officers' hats.

A degree of uniformity amongst sailors' clothing was not noted within the British Navy of Queen Elizabeth I's time. It was not until 1748 that some regulation seems to have come into firm existence.

Before that date, there were indeed stocks of clothes which sailors could buy, usually arranged by one of the ship's officers through a private contractor. In these navies of yesteryear it was a sailor's task to outfit himself with clothing, often purchased from a ship's "slops" chest - a container of secondhand clothing named after the "slops" or wide breeches many men wore.

The first sailors' hats seem to have been 'thrum caps'. This was a cap made out of a woolen material with a long shaggy nap resembling fur.

A 1706 contract with a London clothing merchant to outfit sailors listed: "Leather caps faced with red cotton and lined with black-lined at the rate of one shilling and twopence each". Around the year 1740 sailors were wearing a wide-brimmed hat made out of a tarred sailcloth, and from this come the nickname 'tarpaulin' which eventually became 'Jack Tar'.

In the RN and the RAN this has eventually become 'Jack' to describe any sailor. The sailor's pigtail - the longer the better - was also a fashion of the mid-1700s. Many men wore the pigtail up on top of their head, only displaying the full length of it on special occasions such as Sundays.

Officers' hats seem at first to have been a tricorne - or three-cornered - hat which was universal wear for gentlemen in the 1600s and beyond. This was often adorned with a cockade and gold lace. Again however, it was a matter of convention rather than Admiralty orders which were responsible for this uniformity.

For a time in the 1700s, sailors imitated their officers a little in converting their headgear, at least when ashore, into a tricorne hat by tacking the brim in three places to the crown. This practice was discarded towards the end of the century, with a low-crowned hat with a narrow brim being worn.

Around 1795, officers' hats went through a transformation too. Gold lace became confined to flag officers in both dress and undress uniforms; captains wore it only in full dress. The three-cornered hats became two-cornered. It was at first worn 'athwartships' by all, but this soon became the prerogative of flag-officers, and others wore the hat fore and aft.

A casual attitude towards uniform wearing and in particular variations on them caused Admiral John Jervis to issue an order in 1797 complaining of "having seen several officers of the Fleet on shore, dressed like shop-keepers in coloured cloaths, and others in round hats with their uniforms in violation of the late order".

By halfway through the Napoleonic wars the sailors' formal hat - if he had one - was made either of leather or japanned canvas. Otherwise headgear varied between a simple cloth, often tied to keep sweat out of the eyes, to the straw hat, particularly affected by those who had been to the West Indies.

By the middle of the 19th century this hat reached universal acceptance, and the crown of the hat became considerably higher, with sailors decorating the crown with badges obtained from various landfalls. Meanwhile officers adopted a blue cap with a gold band for use as a less formal hat. Unofficial at first, the new cap in time became general undress headgear, although the black 'top' hat was also occasionally seen.

The cocked hat, which had been worn by some warrant officers and midshipmen, was replaced by this tall black hat for both ranks.

The addition of badges to the seaman's hat was enhanced in the middle of the century by the custom of painting the ship's name on the hat too. This was done in a variety of styles, the more ornate the better, so hats quickly saw the addition of scrolls, flourishes, flowers and so on, depending on the ability of the wearer, or the amount he could pay someone of artistic ability to decorate his hat.

The officers, not to be outdone, saw a black band authorised for their caps in 1856, with the first formal appearance of the cap badge at the same time: "…a crown embroidered in gold and silver and a silver anchor, surrounded by laurel branches". This seems to have followed a badge introduced into service by the officers of HMS QUEEN ten years earlier.

The patent leather peak appeared, and a row of gold embroidery was authorised for commander and captain, although this was changed to resemble oak leaves a few years later. The officers also still had their cocked hats, which were kept for formal occasions and for proceeding ashore.

In 1857 the sailors' hats were brought under a measure of control, with its official shape described as being "similar in shape to that of a naval officer but without a peak". It was to have a black ribbon encircling it.

CMDR Philip R. Sharpe of Waterwitch adopted gilt wire lettering for his ship's company some time previously, and he pressured the Admiralty to adopt it across the Navy. As the handpainted ships' names were unsightly they were no doubt happy to follow the Commander's idea. Sennet, or straw hats, persisted for some time, but were eventually discarded in 1921.

White linen cap covers were introduced for RN officers' hats, to be worn in hot weather. The white helmet for tropical use also came into being late in the 19th century, but for all intents and purposes, the modern style of our hats today had been arrived at.

Black and white caps were in use within the RAN, but later gave way to the sole white cap for officers, probably as a cost-cutting measure. It only remained for the cocked hat to disappear, and this, it seems, occurred just before WWII. All such hats, the heavy gold bullion epaulettes then in use, and swords were landed from the ships of the RAN, which were then storing for the forthcoming combat.

After WWII ended, those particular parts of the uniform were abandoned.

Today the baseball cap, with the ship's names written on the front, has become casual - albeit a never formalised - piece of headgear aboard ship. The sailor's round hats are retained for formal wear, and we have seen the introduction of the legionnaire-style cap. The introduction of the Akubra at the same time - in late 1991 - brought a distinct Australian style to RAN members'

Acknowledgement is made to: Mr John Gill, Staff Officer (Uniforms) for his assistance in research. Jarret Dudley - British Naval Dress. London: JM Dent, 1960. Ross, John - Lucky Ross. WA: Hesperian, 1994.