Uniform

[Finkenwerder]

In the MN there were quite a few variations in uniform and indeed when and where it was worn. I personally thought that whatever the dress, decent standards of work were more important.

However, some of us had whites, some of us had greys, some had kharkis and in one case, of a mate who shall remain nameless, we had brilliant blue! When uniform was required it was worn, when not, it wasn't. Always wore it in the saloon though on the basis that if the stewards were required to wear it, then so should the officers.

Personally I wore khaki for working on deck/in hatches when sailing on the older tonnage with hatch boards and canvas covers but once the raised hatch coamings arrived even that was impractical and the white overalls took over - you can't stay clean leaning over raised coamings or maintaining the panel chains, not to mention deep tank work.

If memory serves, the company wanted officers to wear the grey tropical stuff but I'm not sure it was a popular idea with seagoing folk; I never liked it.

I read somewhere once that on grey funnel line ships OOWs working after dark could wear whatever they wanted and the article quoted one OOW who always wore DJ and bow tie! Can't see that being permitted in a fighting situation!

Speaking of RN, their 'Woolly Pullys' were excellent (we used to get them in the RMAS), whereas the commercial versions were cheap and nasty and barely lasted a few months. To counterbalance that, the RN foul weather gear was rubbish when compared to a good commercially bought set.

[Varley]

I am not sure that is entirely right Fw. I remember clearly that the shipping office in Liverpool had a chart describing MN 'Board of Trade' Uniform. All else was surely company uniform - all same McDonalds bun-flipper. Successive Merchant shipping Acts made wearing MN Uniform by those not in the MN a criminal offence (although well hedged with exceptions to permit use by those not deliberately intending to use it maliciously, such as fancy dress and stage players).

[Makko]

In Ocean Fleets/BF, it was rigorously observed. Notices on the bulletin board, and woe betide you if you didn't see the notice.

If you showed up in the bar/saloon without uniform or the wrong one, you were sent to change.

Europe - Blues/Mediterranean, depending on season.
Mediterranean - "medium" uniform (blues/whites), short sleeved shirt or wooly pully but blues pants.
Passing Aden (more or less) - Whites.

Japan/Pacific transit - Blues/Mediterranean, depending on season.
North America (West Coast) - Blues/Mediterranean, depending on season.
Panama/Venezuela - Whites
US (Gulf) -Mediterranean.
US (East Coast) - Blues/Mediterranean, depending on season.

If you were relieved on watch (engineers), you had to buy a beer or soft drink from the door of the bar and retire to the Duty Mess - NO boiler suits in the bar.

It never changed. Uniform was described in a company list and, also, in the orders of dress posted on the notice board.

I never liked the crew-necked wooly pullys. I managed to find a Dutch Navy vee neck (which I still have) which was far more comfortable. The first time I wore it, the Master had to decide if it was "accepted" uniform. I showed him the label and he deemed it "unusual" but "acceptable"!

Deck work (Deck) was khakis (tropical) or boiler suits (orange). Ro Ros were all orange boiler suits, although I was allowed to wear my white ER boiler suit even though I covered the RoRo engineers in port. The only other person who occasionally wore a white boiler suit on deckwork was the Mate.

Once, arriving to NY, there was a Barber Blue Sea "fling" on the ship and we had to wear full blues and white gloves! It was novel, but purely a one off!

Rgds.
Dave

[Finkenwerder]

Originally Posted by Varley

I am not sure that is entirely right Fw. I remember clearly that the shipping office in Liverpool had a chart describing MN 'Board of Trade' Uniform. All else was surely company uniform - all same McDonalds bun-flipper. Successive Merchant shipping Acts made wearing MN Uniform by those not in the MN a criminal offence (although well hedged with exceptions to permit use by those not deliberately intending to use it maliciously, such as fancy dress and stage players).

I accept that there were many variations of uniform at company level, including some like Ben Line, who used RN 'executive curls' albeit with narrower stripes (that said up until the 1950s or 60s they used Standard MN Uniform). I'm sure other companies did the same.

In Bank Line when I joined, Standard MN Uniform was the order of the day inluding the East of Suez cap badge. As time passed company policy favoured the greys in tropical waters but there was no compulsion about it. By the time I left the MN there were many versions of uniform on a Bank Boat. They did introduce a cap badge of their own at some point but without crown.

Re Standard MN Uniform, see the link:

https://www.nautilusint.org/en/news-...ndard-uniform/