Sailing under false colors was a time-honored tradition right up through WWII (Q-ships) but was especially prevalent in the days of sail. The dictionaries I just used kept talking about pirates but navies used the tactic as well.
Sure, they would have used the basic whites for a cartoon. But the common image of sailors coming into port and going on leave has them wearing the white uniforms. Maybe white was helpful to pick up women but I think that’s not why they did it. Obviously on ships in the cold water regions the dark blue coats are the common image.
So I’m not sure how much Popeye had to do with this. Was he created to reflect a popular notion, or did he contribute to it? I have heard also that Popeye’s giant forearms were another popular notion based sailors from sailing days who had to crank all the winches, windlasses, etc. manually thus producing the Popeye type arms. I have a feeling Popeye was based on established concepts of sailors but you never know, the Dope turns up some long lost secrets.
The only time uniforms might be important for identification would be in hand-to-hand fighting of boarding parties. But it would seem to me, boarding and capturing rather than sinking was more often a tactic against merchant ships rather than warships. In that case, the defenders would not be in uniform anyway - uniforms wouldn’t be a priority or necessity for merchants, and pirates for sure didn’t spend a lot of effort on uniforms.
My point being - the need for distinctive coloured uniforms, to tell your guys from their guys, was less important on the high seas. And, good point earlier, replacement clothing could be made from discarded sail material back in the day.
the dark blue uniforms in the days of Captain Bligh were IIRC were the commissioned officers, who typically paid for their rank and bought their own uniforms. the common sailors did not.
Boo.
(Since Discourse hates pithy replies, here’s some filler)
I think I’ve got the dates right: Captain Blighs sailors would have paid for there own clothing. Officers started having a uniform requirement in 1748, but sailors not until later. Absent a uniform requirement, their work clothing was whatever they owned, and they were only uniform if somebody else paid for it. Since the crown didn’t care, that would be the Captain if he cared. If they didn’t have clothing, they had to buy clothing from the slops chest, same as the merchant navy, typically made up from cut up sailcloth. Since they were only paid out at shore leave (or long after), the payment would be deducted from their wages.
‘Cut up sailcloth’ is white (cream color bleached from exposure to the sun).
Evidently, “cut up sailcloth” was only in the merchant marine. Here’s a page talking about what sailors could get from the slops chest in the King’s Navy:
Sailor’s Slops | Pirates & Zombies (missiledine.com)
It took me way too long, but I got it. 