Clothing and Accessories

Common seamen all wore the same type of clothing, whether they served on pirate ships or on merchant and naval vessels. Before the 19th century, clothes were extremely expensive, and most sailors had only one outfit, which they wore day and night until it rotted off. While fashions fluctuated rapidly among the wealthy, the dress of sailors changed more slowly. Seamen usually went barefoot. From the 1500s, they wore loose, baggy trousers cut off between the knees and ankle. Both practices served functional purposes. Bare feet can grip a slippery deck or ladder more surely than shoes. Short, loose-fitting pants allowed the body to move freely, and their extra material provided protection against rain and spray.

During good weather, sailors in the ancient Mediterranean generally went naked when aboard ship. Officers and sailors on shore wore a knee-length tunic – a one-piece garment something like a gown or long shirt – belted around the waist. Medieval working men, including sailors, wore similar tunics over hose – long stockings, which might be joined like modern “tights.” During the 16th century, English sailors adopted extremely baggy trousers call sloppes, closed just below the knee. On shore, they added stockings and a hip-length tunic, which evolved into a shirt when tucked into the trousers. Captains dressed much the same as crewmen while aboard ship but might adopt more elegant garb ashore.

Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir Francis Drake, Thomas Cavendish, Jacques Sores, François Le Clerc, and other gentlemen dressed in costumes appropriate to their rank. They wore either hose or a combination of hose and breeches (close-fitting or baggy trousers tied with ribbons or garters near the knee). Over these came padded doublets (like a stiff, form-fitting shirt), jackets, and cloaks. Colors were bright, and clothes were ornamented with embroidery and jewels. A wide ruff surrounded the neck, and almost everyone wore a beard and mustache.

Like other 17th-century seamen, Caribbean pirates wore loose pants cut off just below the knee, woolen stockings, and a thigh-length blouse or coat. Many wore “petticoat trousers.” Very full and open at the bottom, these resembled a divided knee-length skirt or the garment called culottes. During the 18th century, sailors in the colder Atlantic favored wide, ankle-length pants, checked linen shirts, and hip-length blue or gray jackets. (Dutch seamen wore longer trousers and coats in cold climates.) Most clothing was of heavy wool, but sailors also sewed their own out of worn sail canvas. The cattle-hunting buccaneers of Hispaniola sometimes turned the hides into crude shirts, petticoat trousers, and miniskirts. Dark colors were normal, and clothes often were covered with tar as protection against cold and damp. Jack Rackham was unusual, Daniel Defoe wrote, because he wore only pants and shirts of white cotton.

Since they had no change of clothing, pirates were dirty and ragged while aboard ship. On shore, some captains scandalized observers by wearing expensive clothes reserved for the gentry. Cilician leaders wore long tunics and togas like Roman nobles. In 1603, Christopher Oloard insisted on being hanged in velvet and silk. Bartholomew Roberts dressed for battle in a crimson damask waistcoat and trousers, a hat with red plume, and a gold chain and diamond cross.

Few pirate movies accurately reproduce the clothing of the era portrayed. In films set in Elizabethan England, the heroes are clean-shaven and dressed far too somberly at court. Movies about the Caribbean do not show pirates in “petticoat trousers.” This is understandable, since historically accurate clothing would work against a film’s message. The Sea Hawk, for example, portrays Errol Flynn as hypermasculine, and Elizabethan costumes look very effeminate to modern eyes. In the same way, villains like Blackbeard would seem ludicrous rather than evil if they appeared in voluminous petticoat trousers. (Rogozinski, Clothing)

Pirates generally wore trousers and jerkins of rough sailcloth at sea, except during an engagement when most donned garments coated with pitch (which could deflect sword thrusts), or doublets of thick leather. On shore many pirates made up for their drab work garb by affecting the colorful dress of gentlemen and exaggerating their mannerisms if not their hygiene. They minced along in silver-buckled high heels, tricorn hats under their arms, clad in plundered combinations of rich-hued and often mismatched garments of embroidered silks and satins, velvets and lace, which often verged on the ludicrous. Some even wore powdered wigs and powdered their stubbled faces like London dandies. Pirates loved gaudy jewelry, wearing rings, elaborate ear pendants, pearls, ornate heavy gold chains, and diamond and emerald crosses stolen from Catholic ships. (Cordingly 109-10)

The clothes on one’s back when boarding [a naval vessel] were worn until they were in tatters. If the clothes got damp or soaked from rain or ocean spray, so be it. The clothes a man owned, he worked in and slept in. There were no luxuries such as nightshirts. A nightshirt would be impractical to wear onboard even if a man could afford to own one. Because seamen were expected to rouse at a moment’s notice to handle the sudden needs of the ship, sleeping in one’s clothes and “all standing” was the norm. Washing garments (with the captain’s permission) was done in seawater (freshwater was far too precious to waste) and only when the weather became warm enough to allow the clothes to dry quickly. The ability to purchase new clothes aboard ship didn’t come about until 1632, at least for the English. (With the exception of officers and marines, there were no official uniforms issued until the late 1800s.) Ships’ pursers stored a chest of clothes called the slop chest. Within the chests were shirts, breeches, coats, and stockings. But this wardrobe came at a heavy cost. The purser deducted two months’ wages for an entire wardrobe. So expensive were these garments to the average seaman, they were worn until they also turned to rags.

Officers, because they were of the noble class, boarded ships with their own chest of uniforms. Officers’ clothes were individually tailor-made and paid out of pocket. The contrast of seamen’s filthy ripped raiment and the nearly spotless attire of the oficers who could afford their uniforms added yet another grievance to the already disgruntled crews.

...

Pirates did not always choose coin, gems, or weapons as booty. Clothing was in high demand. After the shares had been divided, the “auction at the mast” began. The quartermaster announced a time, and those interested gathered at the mainmast. Elaborate clothes were high-bid items, their prices rapidly escalating with fierce bidding and friendly goading from mates. Money from the auction want into the ship’s common stock for supplies to be purchased at friendly ports. Aboard ship, with few exceptions, pirates wore practical clothing. Finery came out of the sea chest after the ship docked. “Dressing up” to go into town was no different in those days than it is today. The attire might have included a shirt of fine linen, cotton, or silk with handmade lace cascading off the cuffs. White cotton or wool stockings rolled above the knee would have been held in place with ribbon or garter, and tight-weaved woolen, silk, or satin breeches would have buttoned below the knees. A heavily brocaded [coat] with long wide cuffs turned up to the elbows and a line of stamped brass buttons would have completed the suit. This was worn over a thigh-length waistcoat of intricate design or solid color, this, too, made of fine satin or brocade. The look was then topped off with a fine-linen neckstock or layered lace jabot in white. A wide-brimmed, cocked or tricorne hat with bright colorful bird plumage and broaches completed the outfit.

Dressing in this manner was premeditated. A buccaneer or pirate wanted to walk through town in full view of the upright citizens knowing they would be horrified by his appearance. Realizing they could do nothing to him only added to the pirate’s amusement. More important, a pirate’s dress was a statement of just how successful he was at his trade. It added to his reputation. And it was an advertisement to the townswomen that he was successful and that he had money to spend on himself and on anyone who cared to spend time with him.

Ashore, an earring was not the only item of jewelry a pirate was likely to wear. The Spanish along the Main fashioned much of their wealth into portable jewelry. The tax on jewelry entering Spain was far less than on ingots, loose gems, or coins. Yards of gold chain, jewel-encrusted pendants, rings, bracelets, and earrings crated and intended for Spain ended up in pirate hands. Some pieces that caught a man’s fancy were kept and worn. The remainder, he spent. (Selinger 142-3,236-7)

There may well have been more women [than historically documented] who sailed the seas under pirate flags. But since those who did this had to dress like men, fight, drink, swear, and carouse like men, some no doubt escaped being unmasked as female, even in quarters as cramped as those on an eighteenth-century ship. (Meltzer 57)