Royal Navy Sennet Hats

[TS Allen]

I'm currently looking for a reference for Royal Navy sennet hats from the Victorian period. I think that I may have found one for sale but I've been looking through references and can only find a handful of images.

Thanks,

~TS

[Simon F]

Hi TS

I am going to be close by a Naval museum tomorrow morning, if I have a little time and presuming it is open, I will try and dig some info for you.

[TS Allen]

I'm assuming that you didn't find anything. Oh well. Appreciate the thought, though.

I'm still looking for references. I'm probably going to go looking through some Ospreys to see if that brings anything up, otherwise I'm still without photographic evidence of their pattern.

~TS

[leigh kitchen]

A photo from this site:

http://www.mpmuseum.org/rcnhat.html

From other sources

"The sennet/sennit hat, removed from kit lists in 1921, a part of the dress of the sailor when uniform was first established, along with a few other items, probably formed a part of the sailor?s irregular uniform for many years prior to 1857, and it or something very similar, was probably associated with the Napoleonic wars. The hat was to be black in home waters, and white when serving in the tropics. The black hat, along with the jacket, sometimes known as the "tar" or "tarpaulin," was abolished in 1891. The white hat or "straw" aka sennet, when out-of-shape, could be stiffened by being painted or moistened with a solution of gelatine, and set to dry on a hat-block."

"Short blue jackets with brass buttons (hence the name BLUEJACKET) became uniform in 1857 but were withdrawn in 1891; black tarpaulin hats (hence the name JACK TAR) lasted the same period; these hats were "boater"-shaped, worn with a cap-ribbon round the crown. Sailors' sennet hats were replaced by tropical helmets in 1921; the tropical helmets were generally withdrawn in about 1942."

[leigh kitchen]

Illustration from this site:

"Royal Naval Artillery Volunteer with an 40-pounder RBL Armstrong gun on a pivot mount, 1892.

This volunteer wears a loose blue jumper with white-trimmed blue collar, blue bellbottom trousers and a straw 'Sennet' hat - the standard clothing for ratings in the Royal Navy from 1857. The left arm of this man's shirt displays rank and ratings badges in white, officially replaced by red in 1860. He sits on the carriage of an Armstrong gun - a rifled breech loader firing a 40-pound shell adopted by the Royal Navy in 1859 and declared obsolete in the 1870s."

Edited August 12, 2008 by leigh kitchen

[leigh kitchen]

Re the US Navy - "The 1866 Regulations allowed a white sennet straw hat in addition to the white cover which was tied to the blue flat hat. It was found that the addition of a white cover did not provide coolness but rather added to the discomfort of the woolen hat in warm weather. This was the beginning of a distinct white hat which would evolve through canvas and eventually the white cotton hat of recent times. To provide unit identification, which was so difficult in the myriad of ships that were commissioned, a hat ribbon specified to be 1 ?? wide with the command?s name in letters was prescribed. Commanding officers were required to insure that all lettering was the same size on all hats. Standardization was also carried through in size dimensions of the white hat and the mandate that all blue flat hats be uniform in shape and color."

Royal Navy, 1877 Regulations:

Hat?To be black or white depending on the climate.

The hat to be four inches high in the crown, three inches wide in the brim, and seven inches across the crown, and made sennet, covered with brown holland painted black, with a hat ribbon bearing the ship?s name; and in warm climes the same hat uncovered.

A chin stay to be attached to the hat.

From this site:http://web.onetel.com/~sunhouse/html/leslie1.html

"In May 1918, at the advanced age of sixteen years and three months, I joined H.M.S. Ajax as a midshipman............By day, officers and men when working in the open wore sun helmets; when dressed in their best, the sailors wore sennet hats. These are the traditional straw hats only associated with certain unfortunate small boys and the chorus of H.M.S. Pinafore. This extremely smart looking but most impractical headgear disappeared, as an item of naval uniform, a year or so later."

[Simon F]

I'm assuming that you didn't find anything. Oh well. Appreciate the thought, though.

I'm still looking for references. I'm probably going to go looking through some Ospreys to see if that brings anything up, otherwise I'm still without photographic evidence of their pattern.

~TS

Hi TS

Sorry for the late reply to this, I have had a sudden influx of work and have been waaayy busy.

I didn't get a chance to visit the museum this time round but be sure I will do my level best to help you out..

Thanks to Leigh for providing the images and information :cheers:

Edited August 12, 2008 by Simon F

[leigh kitchen]

From this site:

http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/r...2-03/1016222449

Hello All

I have a copy of a booklet entiltled "The Royal Navy 1790-1970", no.65 of

Osprey Men at Arms series, edited by Martin Windrow, text by Robert

Wilkinson-Latham. It contains a drawing or painting from the National

Maritime Museum entitled "Heaving the Lead" dated about 1807 which shows a

sailor in straw hat, spotted scarf and loose frock over a shirt. It states

"the men made sennet hats by weaving and shaping grass" so these hat were

part of an unofficial uniform worn by sailors. In 1857 a uniform was issued

for sailors. "Uniform dress:" consisted from that time of a blue cloth

jacket, and trousers, white duck trousers, a white frock (coat), square blue

collar on which were three rows of white tape, a pea jacket, a black silk

scarf, a black canvas hat with a ribbon around the crown bearing the ship's

name in gold letters, a working cap akin to that worn by officers but

without the peak, and a sennet hat. The sennet hat was still worn during the

Zulu War of 1879 and in 1881-2 in Egypt. During the Boer War seamen wore a

khaki uniform and a sennet hat with khaki cover.I can't find any mention of

the sennet hat after this time

cheers

Helen

I too am enjoying the thread about the sennet hat.

I have a copy of old painting done between 1830 & 1904, which depicts

a sailor coming home from the sea in England. My picture is only a

jpg copy and very blurred.

This sailor has on a blue "straw boater" which may be a sennet hat.

( Thank you for this new information ). He has a dark blue ? " pea

coat" over lighter blue bloused pants and top. Most noticeable is

the bright red scarf tied around his neck. He carries a shallow

basket on his arm.

Family legend tells us the painting is of the Barker homestead in

England which our ancestor left abt 1830 to emigrate to NYC.

We have been told our Barker ancestors were blue blooded mariners

with a cousin General Barker who fought in one of the Boer Wars.

We have theorized that the mariners might have been in the English

Navy.

The house in the painting has a steep thatched roof, similar to some

houses in southern England, or so I have been told.

Because the sailor is walking down the lane to his home, it seems

likely that he walked home from where he ship was moored.

Can anyone tell me about this "uniform" and the time frame it would

be worn? Can anyone tell me about ports in southern England where

the sailors ship might have been berthed?

Thanks for any help you can give to me.

I am enjoying reading this thread too.

The straw hat of the seamen which Brian described sounds like those which,

when copied by ordinary people as a fashion item, were called "Straw Boaters

I believe. Old photos which appear to have been taken in the summer seem

to have everyone in boaters.

<<a sennet hat as a wide brimmed

> straw hat which was naval uniform headgear for 'men dressed as seamen'

until

> about 1921. The brim tended to be turned up slightly. Not unlike a modern

> ladies straw bonnet which may well have been modelled on the naval item.>>

Regards

Jenny DeAngelis.

Spain.

[leigh kitchen]

Mention of Sennets in this this:

http://www.navyandmarine.org/historicalref...forms/index.htm

The round hat, or pork pie, a blue or gray cloth cap, was the common hat style for the mid-nineteenth century sailor. Regulations called for sennet hats - white or japanned black, straw hats - for dress wear; however, there are no records of sennet hat issue. There is one example of a seaman's cloth hat at the Columbus Confederate Naval Museum. The hat is constructed of heavy, dark gray wool. It has no visor and is lined with muslin. The hat band is adjusted in the back using a draw string. The Herrington plate of the Confederate sailor prisoner of war shows a hat of similar design. The Herrington hat also has a ribbon, with the word Merrimac painted or embroidered, tied around the hat band with a bow. This illustration is unusual in that most contemporary photographs of Union and Confederate sailors do not show a painted hat ribbon. Instead, the hat ribbon was left plain. Dress hats (sennet hats) normally carried the painted ribbon bearing the ship's name. The cloth hat, considered a work or fatigue hat, had traditionally been left plain. Federal forces adopted the round hat as the dress hat later in the war and the practice may have spread to the South. A photograph of William Gilmore, pilot of the C.S.S. Arkansas, shows him wearing a military style forage cap with a naval device attached. It is possible that caps issued from 1862 to 1864 were of the army pattern. An indication of military cap may be identified by the word "cap."

Edited August 12, 2008 by leigh kitchen

[leigh kitchen]

Photos from this site:

http://www.navy.gov.au/spc/history/ships/australia1-2.html

[TS Allen]

Greatly appreciate all of the information. This place is better than Google.

~TS

[coldstream]

Just found this amongst my archived photos and thought I would add to this topic. 'The Handy Men Whale Island July 1902'

Nice view of Sennet hats in wear.

[VRW]

Just found this amongst my archived photos and thought I would add to this topic. 'The Handy Men Whale Island July 1902'

Nice view of Sennet hats in wear.

Thank-you! so-much! for posting the pics. As, those sennet-hats look great. If you wish to see a lot of sailors wearing them, go to youtube; and look at the funeral service of: KING EDWARD VII: the gun-carriage is being drawn by sailors, all wearing sennet-hats. The film is old and grainy, but they can be seen. A film from 1910. When these hats were still in-vogue. I think they look very, very smart, indeed!

[Kev in Deva]

Just found this amongst my archived photos and thought I would add to this topic. 'The Handy Men Whale Island July 1902'

Nice view of Sennet hats in wear.

Great picture.

Front row, bottom left "Barefoot in the Park"

Excused boots?