by Roy Adkins
There were worries that the sores on their bare feet were harmful to the men’s health, yet at other times the officers had difficulty parting them from their footwear. Captain Barlow of the Phoebe ordered that ‘People washing decks to take their shoes and stockings off ’,75 while the physician Thomas Trotter lamented:
Seamen are naturally indolent and filthy, and are merely infants as to discretion in everything that regards their health. They will assist in washing decks, and sit the whole day afterwards, though wet thereby, half way up the legs, without shifting themselves, to the great injury of their health. They should therefore be compelled to put off their shoes and stockings, and roll up their trowsers on those occasions, which will not only cause their feet to be dry and comfortable the rest of the day, but necessarily cause a degree of cleanliness which otherwise would be disregarded.76
The seamen were not supposed to sleep in their clothes, and Barlow warned that ‘If any of the ships company are discovered making a practice of sleeping in their clothes and tending by that means to breed or harbour vermin, he shall be severely punished.’77 They were expected to keep their own clothes clean, even though on land this was regarded as women’s work. There was no laundry room and no efficient way of washing and drying clothes, which proved a constant struggle for the men. Just after he was seized by the press-gang at Belfast in June 1809 and taken on board the tender, Henry Walsh was shocked to witness men do this work. He only possessed the clothes he was wearing, and grew increasingly worried about his laundry, after ‘seeing the sailors washing their clothes. I was very much alarmed on my own part how I should wash my own clothing when they were dirty.’78 At the time it was acceptable practice for a shirt to last several days, and the surgeon of HMS Pompée in 1811, Guy Alexander Acheson, ordered that ‘Every man in the Sick List is to have on a clean shirt every Sunday and Thursday, and on those days a clean tablecloth will be provided for the sick mess.’79 It was only after a week that Walsh became anxious about obtaining a clean shirt for Sunday: ‘As I [had] seen no woman on board that I might fee [pay] for washing them, these thoughts continuously affected my mind.’80 Another pressed man, William Caslet, asked him how he would get his shirt clean for Sunday:
I answered him very plain and told him that I was as rich as Job and that I had nothing but what was on me and that it was time these was with the washerwoman if I knew where she lived. He let me know that his situation was the same and that he was then going to strive to wash them and told me he would wash mine if I pleased. I thanked him for his kind offer, so sought for a convenient place to take off my shirt but to my unspeakable grief I had none for to put on while it was washing … I had plenty of clothing at home, but I leaving my father’s house so suddenly I brought nothing with me but what was on my back. But however in some short time necessity soon made me find the use of my hands, so I once thought that man’s hands was never made to wash linens. But now I see that they have now to wash, make and mend or soon know the want of all.81
Sea water was commonly used for laundry – fresh water was too valuable to waste, though at times they were given hot water from the galley. Washing clothes was one way that the wives of sailors, accompanying their husbands unofficially and therefore without any entitlement to rations, could earn a little money. These women often illicitly used fresh water as it left the clothes cleaner and less prone to damp. On several occasions Rear-Admiral Sir John Jervis,* who kept a sharp watch over expenditure on supplies within his fleet, felt compelled to issue a warning:
There being reason to apprehend that a number of women have been clandestinely brought from England in several ships, more particularly in those which have arrived in the Mediterranean in the last and present year, the respective Captains are required by the Admiral to admonish those ladies upon the waste of water and other disorders committed by them, and to make known to all, that on the first proof of water being obtained for washing from the scuttle-butt or otherwise under false pretences in any ship, every woman in the fleet who has not been admitted under the authority of the Admiralty or commander in chief will be shipped for England by the first convoy, and the officers of the fleet are strictly enjoined to watch vigilently their behaviour, and to see that no waste or improper consumption of water happens in future.82
The physician Thomas Trotter, with his customary disapproval of the men’s habits, felt that they were not keen to keep their clothes clean:
Seamen have a custom of dressing themselves to undergo inspection at stated periods, while at other times they are covered with rags and nastiness. They should be compelled to keep their trowsers and other cloaths clean, how much soever they may be worn … Whenever any payment is made on board, the officers of divisions should take care that their men do lay in a sufficient stock of clothes, with soap, and such other articles as may be necessary for them, before they are allowed to squander any of their money in dissipation.83
As the rigging was coated with tar, the men and their clothes would have become impregnated with the stuff, which would be almost impossible to remove. On board the Defence in 1794, under the evangelical Captain Gambier, everyone was obliged to attend a church service on Sundays and kneel on the tarry deck, and Midshipman Dillon watched how one lieutenant took precautions:
In the winter, Lieut. Twysden would attend wrapped up in a great coat, and would make his servant place a folded piece of canvas over the pitchy seams, that his smalls might not be injured. This act of the Lieutenant’s annoyed the Captain exceedingly; but, in making his excuses, he complained of being cold, and, as to the pitch, he stated that his trowsers were more than once spoiled from kneeling on the seams of the deck, as well as those of many others.84
Traditionally, household laundry was cleansed by soaking in an alkaline solution – lye or ley – of vegetable ashes mixed with water or urine, which lifted the dirt and grease. Clothes were also bleached by soaking them in urine. The wood ash from the galley fire would have been suitable, and urine that was collected in tubs could also have been used for laundry. Soap for laundry began to be issued to seamen from 1796, though Gilbert Blane was pleased that over a decade earlier every seaman on the sick list in the fleet off America was given half a pound of soap weekly, because ‘the supply of soap was a thing entirely new in the service’.85 In Britain the most common method of manufacturing soap was to boil a solution of wood or plant ashes with waste animal fat (tallow) or occasionally with olive oil dregs. The water evaporated and the fatty acids reacted with the alkali carbonates to form soap, a process known as saponification.
Around 1790 the French chemist Nicolas Leblanc developed a way of making soda ash from brine that advanced soap production. Most soap was coarse and could retain an offensive smell, but the initial jelly-like substance could be scented before pouring into moulds to form hard blocks. Soap suitable for laundry done in sea water was much sought after, and in September 1806 an advertisement appeared in The Times, saying that ‘His Majesty hath been graciously pleased to grant his Royal Letters Patent to WILLIAM EVERARD BARON VON DOORNIK, for his Invention of an Improved Method of Manufacturing SOAP, whereby Linens, &c may be as effectively cleansed with Sea or Hard Water with as much facility as is done by the common Soap when used with soft water.’86 There followed several testimonials from naval officers, including one signed by captains of warships anchored at the Nore, who claimed that ‘This is to certify, that we whose names are hereunto annexed, have caused the Patent Soap, invented for the purpose of washing linen, &c. with salt water, to be tried in various instances, and find it to possess all the qualities, and to answer its intended purpose equally well as the common yellow or mottled soap does with fresh water.’87
The men had to wash clothes at times appointed by the captain, which varied from ship to ship, and despite the difficulties of drying clothing, the appearance of the warship came first, with strict rules about where wet laundry could be hung to dry. Captain Barlow of the Phoebe instructed that ‘Mondays and Fridays are the days
appointed for washing or drying and it is expected that in case of a muster of clothes on Monday every thing will be clean but those taken off that morning.’88 He insisted that ‘It is forbid hanging clothes about the bowsprit, heads chains, or running rigging – anchors or tops &c … Nobody is permitted to wash clothes at any time or any where except when and where it is particularly allowed by order.’89 The American seaman Joseph Bates remembered with bitterness the difficulties on board his own ship, HMS Rodney:
The discipline was to muster all hands at nine o’clock in the morning, and if our dress was reported soiled or unclean, then all such were doomed to have their names put on the ‘black list’ … If sufficient changes of dress had been allowed us, and sufficient time to wash and dry the same, it would have been a great pleasure, and also a benefit to us, to have appeared daily with unsoiled white dresses on, notwithstanding the dirty work we had to perform. I do not remember of ever being allowed … only one day in the week to cleanse them, viz., about two hours before daylight once a week, all hands (about 700) called on the upper decks to wash and scrub clothes. Not more than three-quarters of these could be accommodated to do this work for themselves at a time; but no matter, when daylight came at the expiration of the two hours, all washed clothes were ordered to be hung on the clothes-line immediately … Orders were most strict, that whoever should be found drying his clothes at any other but this time in the wash-day, should be punished.90
He unsuccessfully tried to circumvent the regulations: ‘To avoid detection and punishment, I have scrubbed my trowsers early in the morning, and put them on and dried them. Not liking this method, I ventured at one time to hang up my wet trowsers in a concealed place behind the maintop-sail: but the sail was ordered to be furled in a hurry, and the lieutenant discovered them.’91
On board HMS Indefatigable in 1812, Captain John Fyffe gave orders that
No person is upon any pretence whatever to hang up clothes or lay them in the boats or on the booms without permission from the commanding officer. On the washing days, if in harbour and in fine weather at sea, lines will be got up between the masts for the purpose and on no account are clothes to be hung up anywhere else except when no lines are got up then in the rigging. Whenever clothes are wet, either from casuality of weather or clearing hawse etc, on application to the commanding officer leave will be given for their being hung up to dry. Wet clothes are on no account to be left between decks when the weather will permit their being hung up.92
Clothing was just as much a problem for the officers since they were expected to keep up appearances, which could be difficult, as William Lovell remembered as a midshipman: ‘Soap was almost – indeed, I might say, quite – as scarce an article as clean shirts and stockings. It was a common thing in those days of real hard service to turn shirts and stockings inside out, and make them do a little more duty. Sometimes we used to search the clothes-bag to see “if one good turn deserved another”.’93 Turning clothes inside out implied that the smell of dirty clothes was not deemed offensive – only their appearance. Officers usually had servants to take care of their laundry, which was often taken on shore. William Wilkinson, master of the Minotaur off Spithead in November 1807, wrote to his wife: ‘At present no officer is allowed to go on shore from any of the ships here and I have not had my things washed since you were at Yarmouth, nor do I know whether I shall be able to get any washed or not.’94 Four days later, he complained to her again: ‘I have had no opportunity of sending my linen to wash, but last night on examining my trunks, I was surprised to find that I had not a clean shirt left, and thinking that I must have one in a day or two, looked over the bags and picked out two of the cleanest, paying most attention to the collars. I have given six of those without frills to be washed by a woman on board, which I do not expect to have done very well.’95
Aaron Thomas often sent his washing on shore, including one time at Antigua: ‘I was finding fault with my washerwoman for not washing my linen clean. Sir, says she, some of them were so dirty, that I was obliged to wash them in hot water which gave me a fever.’96 The surgeon Francis Spilsbury at Goree, on the West African coast, recorded that ‘Washing on the island is charged at the rate of a dollar for a dozen pieces, counting a handkerchief etc as a shirt. They are beaten on stones and then rinsed. This is the only kind of washing in use, notwithstanding which, the articles are bleached very white.’97 Lieutenant John Yule off Saint Domingo in the West Indies wrote to his wife Eliza about the same pricing structure there: ‘Washing is 10 shillings for one dozen pieces whether they consist of pocket handkerchiefs, sheets or blankets.’98 The seamen at times paid for their washing to be done on shore, and in a petition written at Plymouth by the men of the Royal Sovereign, not long after Trafalgar, they complained that they ‘would not even be allowed to send their dirty cloths out of the ship to be washed, not having time for the duty of the ship to wash them on board’.99
Laundry washed and dried on land could have been ironed with flat irons, but on board flat irons heated on the galley stove were probably only feasible for the clothing of the officers. Most of the men were lucky if their clothes were cleaned and dried properly, let alone ironed, but they had the option of resorting to any smooth object like glass linen smoothers, bottles or large pebbles. When Lieutenant William Dillon and several seamen were marooned in a boat in a dead calm sea, he noted that ‘My first annoyance was the want of clean linen. One of the seamen, Driscoll, a paddy, offered to wash my shirt. I gave it to him. He managed uncommonly well, then smoothed it with a glass bottle, till it approached very near to having been ironed.’100
The same standards of cleanliness applied to the men’s hammocks, which did not remain constantly suspended (‘slung’) on board a ship, but each morning were rolled up with the bedding, lengthwise like a sausage, put in a numbered bag and taken to the upper deck. Captain Barlow of the Phoebe ordered that ‘In fine weather the hammocks to be got up at 7 o’clock in harbour, and ½ past 7 at sea and got down again at sunset. The bedding to be occasionally aired … Men to be appointed to bring up the hammocks of the mates and midshipmen.’101 He added: ‘The centinels are to keep their posts clear [and] not to suffer any person to lean on the hammocks’.102 Each man had two hammocks, and Barlow emphasised that ‘Every man being allowed two hammocks that he may keep them clean and in good order, he is charged to take particular care of them and if any are lost without a satisfactory reason they will be charged against his wages.’103
Those who encountered ships and seamen of other nations often commented on the lack of cleanliness, highlighting how much better the British were. Major-General George Cockburn greatly approved of the high standards of the frigate Lively: ‘Our ship is so clean that seasickness (which, I think, in nine cases out of ten, arises from the dirt and bad smells) is out of the question.’104 He was even more impressed when at Cadiz he saw a foreign warship: ‘In our way to shore this morning, we called on board a Spanish 70-gun ship: such dirt, filth, and misery I could not conceive.’105 Similarly, when the Irish surgeon James Lowry was captured on board the Swiftsure in 1801 in the Mediterranean, he observed that ‘The French have very bad discipline amongst their men: hence the superiority of our fleet at sea. The men are very dirty, the smell not of the most fragrant kind.’106
Washing of the men themselves on board Royal Navy ships was irregular, and no purpose-built washing facilities were provided. The physician Thomas Trotter recommended that ‘Great pains should be constantly taken that the men are cleanly in their persons, and that they are furnished with all necessary cloathing’,107 but unlike on other issues, he made no further remarks. The Admiralty regulations stated that ‘The captain is to be particularly attentive to the cleanliness of the men, who are to be directed to wash themselves frequently, and to change their linen twice every week.’108 Soap was occasionally used, probably mainly the coarse soap intended for laundry. Some finer soaps such as pure white Castile soap from Spain were used on the skin, and from 1789 Andrew P
ears in London developed a refined, translucent soap, still known today as Pears soap. These could only be afforded by a few since soap was heavily taxed. Towels for drying were probably the preserve of the officers, and in a letter to his father, Marine Lieutenant Rotely asked him to send ‘a few towels’.109 The seamen would have doused themselves with water in buckets or a tub, and some ships provided larger tubs in which the men could immerse themselves. Some did bathe in the sea, but not all could swim.
Everybody shaved, as beards were not tolerated. Shaving was done for the men by somebody who acted as a barber, using a cutthroat razor, and the majority of men were shaved once a week so as to look smart for Sundays. Most mentions of shaving are associated with ‘crossing the line’, when those who had never before crossed the Tropic of Cancer or the Equator were subjected to all sorts of ceremonies, such as being ducked in sea water. One common practice was to threaten to shave the novices using noxious substances like tar instead of soap and grotesque implements instead of razors, unless they paid a fine. The soldier John Spencer Cooper observed one incident when his regiment was being transported to the West Indies:
A bucket and an iron hoop, instead of a razor, were also in readiness for the shaving. The bucket, or lather box, was half filled with a compound of tar, grease, and something I shall not name. The razor was about a yard long, rusty and jagged at its edges. Then a seaman, who was not willing to pay the usual fine, viz. – half a gallon of rum, was … blindfolded. An old tar then proceeded to lather the poor fellow most outrageously, at the same time asking sundry questions, in order that he might have an opportunity of thrusting his brush into the patient’s mouth. Having satisfied himself with lathering or daubing the sufferer, the barber began with the hoop to scrape off the lather and a little skin from the man’s jaws.110