Friday, September 28, 2012

Straw Hats in the Navy?

From the Yahoo! Civil War Navy and Marine Forum.

There was a question in the forum as to whether in spring, the ship's purser would buy straw material for making hats for the crew.

Steve Sessoms, an expert on the Navy of the era, replied that he had never heard that it was a Navy-wide thing, but Paymaster Keeler of the USS Monitor in his diary wrote that he went ashore at Hampton Roads to buy straw hats for the crew, but couldn't find any.  He did buy a quantity of straw and brought it back to the ship where the crew set to working making their own hats.  Those that knew how to helped show ones with no clue, but they still ended up with all sorts of styles and off-looking hats.

I'd Have Liked to See a Picture of Those Hats.  --Old B-R'er

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