Author Topic: Merchant Marine circa 1800's?  (Read 3454 times)

Offline Seafarer

  • Citizen
  • *
  • Posts: 9
  • Liked:
  • Likes Given: 0
Merchant Marine circa 1800's?
« on: November 30, 2004, 08:52:18 PM »
I am a retired Merchant Marine and am trying to outfit myself in something peorid correct for a seafarer. NOT Navy. Can anybody help?
thanks
Seafarer
SASS 60382
NRA, NRA_ILA
Gun Owners of NH
S&W Collectors Association
NHRA
All things Smith & Wesson

Offline Delmonico

  • Deputy Marshal
  • Top Active Citizen
  • *
  • Posts: 23324
  • Liked:
  • Likes Given: 1
Re: Merchant Marine circa 1800's?
« Reply #1 on: November 30, 2004, 09:38:58 PM »
What ever ya was wearin' in the saloon when the drugged yer drink. ;D  Sorry could not resist that one and might be a lot of truth to it.  Welcome pard, I am interested in the answers you should get from those more qualified than I to give you guidance.
Mongrel Historian


Always get the water for the coffee upstream from the herd.

Ab Ovo Usque ad Mala

The time has passed so quick, the years all run together now.

Offline Frenchie

  • "We have met the enemy, and he is us." - Pogo
  • Top Active Citizen
  • *
  • Posts: 762
  • Photo by Julio Zangroniz @ "September Storm", 2007
  • Liked:
  • Likes Given: 0
Re: Merchant Marine circa 1800's?
« Reply #2 on: November 30, 2004, 10:51:01 PM »
First thing to do is figure out who and what you are. Age can help determine that. You sound like you ought to shoot for "old salt".

Basically you need to do a great deal of research - that means you do it, you don't just ask around and take whatever anyone tells you. Move in to your local library. Look on the Internet and in the library catalog for lists of books about seafaring in the 19th century, there are literally thousands of books on that subject. Read, read, read. Think and talk about it. Read a lot more.

Look for groups that study the subject, there are probably hundreds in the US, it will just take time and effort to find them.

Best last book I read about it is Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana. The most common garb for a seaman at that time and place was "loose ducks and checked shirts". They called their hand-made garments "slops".

Museums are perhaps the place to see clothing like what you'll be wearing. Check them out on the 'Net, look at the pics. Write to the curators and ask questions. Get thee hence for long weekends of study. Mystic Seaport in Connecticut is Mecca for this stuff. New Bedford in Massachusetts is where you'll find out everything you need to know about whaling. The China and Yankee clippers are a lifetime study all by themselves.

And you must learn to do fancy knotwork, because you're not going to make a very convincing seaman unless you have tons of things made of knotwork such as fancy ends on the rope that closes your seabag, knotted handles on your seachest, etc. You'll get to know what an "arse" really is  ;D

You could have an impression that few could rival. Fair winds and following seas, shipmate.
Yours, &c.,

Guy 'Frenchie' LaFrance
Vous pouvez voir par mes vêtements que je ne suis pas un cowboy.

Advertising

  • Guest
Re: Merchant Marine circa 1800's?
« Reply #3 on: Today at 07:17:31 AM »

Offline Seafarer

  • Citizen
  • *
  • Posts: 9
  • Liked:
  • Likes Given: 0
Re: Merchant Marine circa 1800's?
« Reply #3 on: November 30, 2004, 11:40:45 PM »
Frenchie
Thanks for the tips. Some of which I already should of thought of.
Seafarer
SASS 60382
NRA, NRA_ILA
Gun Owners of NH
S&W Collectors Association
NHRA
All things Smith & Wesson

Offline Steel Horse Bailey

  • Jeff "Steel Horse Bailey" - BP Warthog & C&B Shooter
  • NCOWS Member
  • Top Active Citizen
  • ***
  • Posts: 6164
  • A Master of the Sublime & Holy Order or the Soot
  • SASS #: 27463
  • NCOWS #: 1919
  • Liked:
  • Likes Given: 0
Re: Merchant Marine circa 1800's?
« Reply #4 on: September 27, 2005, 09:15:37 PM »
Seafarer, whatever happened?

Frenchie, did you ever hear any more about this?

Ride easy!
"May Your Powder always be Dry and Black; Your Smoke always White; and Your Flames Always Light the Way to Eternal Shooting Fulfillment !"

 

SMF spam blocked by CleanTalk

© 1995 - 2023 CAScity.com