I mean, they didn’t till the late 19th century, and still today work uniforms tend to not be white as do shipboard ones.
But why did White=Navy begin. Cannot think of a worse colour to wear onboard a ship or at a base.
Try wearing some other color when the sun is beating down on you near the Equator.
Been there done that. Colour matters less than loose clothing covering most of your body.
Assuming arguendo that one matters more than the other, why not do both?
You mean in terms of how much dirt shows when it gets on them? There are two ways to think about that:
- Give people uniforms that don’t show dirt so much
- Give people uniforms that show dirt, and discipline them to keep it clean
I don’t know for sure that the second reason was a factor, but it is the sort of thing that militaries do.
Also, white fabrics can be put through harsh washing - boiling and bleaching to remove dirt and if that works, they all come out looking the same as each other. Coloured fabrics will tend to fade under such treatment.
Why do you say this?
How far back does this go, white naval uniforms?
I can’t even keep marinara sauce off a civilian white shirt, so I’m glad I never had to maintain a white uniform to military standards.
Army greens… now there’s a uniform you can cook chili in.
Good point. I didn’t even think that mariners would have to have marinara sauce.
When a sailor falls into the dark ocean, it’s easier for his mates to find him.
If your chili comes out green, yer doin’ it wrong.
I’m not sure, but when Popeye was introduced in 1929 he wore a white uniform.
That’s a useful datapoint. It means at that time the white uniform was well known. Possibly there are earlier dates to use though.
Apparently white cracker jack uniforms go back to WWI. I found a similar looking uniform going back to the 1890’s on Bing.
“As a result of wartime operations in tropical waters and spurred by increased relations with South America, the formerly cold water Navy prescribed appropriate warm weather gear consisting of a white duck outfit with a black varnished hat.”
The first response in the thread was correct, it was to deal with heat in the tropics.
Traditionally sailors were responsible for their own clothing. If you came aboard drunk and without any kit, you were fitted out, cost withheld from wages, with slops, from the slops chest, made from cut up and worn out sail cloth.
In the English Navy, if the captain was rich enough and wanted to show off, he could dress all his crew in uniform. Traditionally, in the cold-water navy, with coats of navy blue and also navy blue woolen bell-bottom trousers.*
Popeye is a cartoon character. Line drawings work better than solid colors on newsprint, which explains the warm-weather uniform.
*It was only when looking that up that I realized that the expression ‘bell bottom trousers and coat of navy blue’ comes directly, if not originally, from a dirty song.
Another quote from TriPolar’s link:
In 1869, two new ratings were authorized, the machinist and seaman gunner. In order to protect clothing from the dirty, sooty spaces, an overall and white jumper was authorized as a work uniform. White was chosen as dyeing of fabrics for mass production was often crude and not very durable. Therefore a fabric which could be laundered easily without running was utilized. Appearance was restricted to work spaces where exposure was limited and considered secondary to utility. Also white was considered the best reflector for heat in engine room spaces at that time.
The US Navy predates Labor Day.
The story I heard was that in the days the army began to use mainly smooth-bore muskets, the musket aim was so erratic (smooth bore, round balls) that the only viable tactic was to line up a hundred or more men in a line and all fire a volley at once. Then, hopefully, a decent number of the enemy got hit since they too were lined up likewise. However, the gunpowder from a volley was so thick, when it came time to do a bayonet charge and hand to hand combat, it truly happened in the “fog of war”. Armies thus wore bright colours to tell your side from the enemy to avoid friendly fire/bayonet incidents. Later, improved rifle bore marksmanship made colours that blended into the landscape more important.
Navies did not have this problem. If you had to figure out if the guy you encountered on ship was friendly or not, the doo-doo was already too deep. By the time the other ship was close enough for a boarding party, you were probably exchanging broadsides; in the age of ironclads and massive guns, telling who in front of you was enemy was less relevant. Plus, uniforms that camouflaged a sailor against the sea were pretty irrelevant too. I assume until well into the 20th century, colourfast dies that stood up to abuse of sea salt and tropical sun were rare. And as mentioned, the sun can be hot in darker clothing.
All reasons why any sailors, and especially those who were not in the officer class (who would pay for their own uniforms, way back when) would probably not use anything other than plain uniforms.