![]() I recall doing many Tea party reenactments with participants using 20th century colloquialisms, wearing buckskin coats, and Dunham workboots. This is an argument that will go on and on. I have seen untold incidences of "farbiness." I have been bearded and clean shaven. Walker, 1750, in The Lady Tars: The Autobiographies of Hannah Snell, Mary Lacy and Mary Anne Talbot, Tucson, Arizona: Fireship Press, 2008, page 26. Snell, Hannah, The Female Soldier Or, The Surprising Life and Adventures of Hannah Snell, London: R. Nicol, John, The Life and Adventures of John Nicol, Mariner, edited by Tim Flannery, New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1997, page 162. Fox, Ebenezer, The Adventures of Ebenezer Fox in the Revolutionary War, Boston: Charles Fox, 1847, page 108. He might be forced to grow out a beard when wrecked on a distant shore, or destitute on the street, but by far the overwhelming majority of sailors took a razor to their facial hair. ![]() Watson and the Shark, John Singleton Copley, 1778, National Gallery of Art Some sailors undoubtedly did wear sideburns, as depicted by Copley in his masterpiece Watson and the Shark. In Hannah Snell's memoirs, she is said to have been ridiculed by her fellow tars (who were unaware she was a woman posing as a man) 'for want of having a rough beard as they had.' The word 'beard' could sometimes be misleadingly used as referring to what we might recognize as scruff or a five o'clock shadow. Some of it is genuine misunderstanding of historical evidence. Some of this is obstinacy, with more than a few online forums being inundated with bearded fellows who refuse to give up against historical evidence. Nicol thought that the beard was essential to looking 'very dirty.'īeards continue to be depicted in movies, television, and video games about the eighteenth century, and continue to be worn by historical reenactors portraying average sailors. While it is likely that Nicol did more than grow a beard to appear disheveled and undesirable, it was the only specific action he relates in this goal. When John Nicol learned that a press gang awaited him back at port, 'I had allowed my beard to grow long and myself to be very dirty to be as unlikely as possible when the man-of-war boats came on board to press the crew.' He believed, perhaps rightly, that the Royal Navy had no interest in taking a dirty, bearded soul that might infect their ship. I've found only one case in which a sailor chose to wear a beard in this period. Ebenezer Fox, writing many decades after his experiences, claimed that prisoners on the hulk Jersey had 'their beards never cut, excepting occasionally with a pair of shears, which did not improve their comeliness, though it might add to their comfort.' Despite their condition, they still sought to cut away what facial hair they could. This appears to be the case in what few references there are in sailors' memoirs, too. The first two shown here are political cartoons in which the artist is specifically calling out the ministry for neglecting the sailors that protect their nation, and so condemning them to poverty. The beards represent their rock-bottom situation. In all of these situations, sailors are depicted ashore and worse for wear. John Carter Brown Library of Early American Images.įrost on the Thames, Samuel Collings, 1788-1789, Yale Center for British Art. ![]() Plate from Histoire des Naufrages, engraved by Marillier, 1788, Ewart,Ī new way to pay the National-Debt, James Gillray, 1786, British Museum. Without._from the London Gazette of 11 June, 1757, T. In the hundreds of images I've examined, only four clearly show beards. Perhaps more appropriately, I should say that beards aren't a thing sailors chose to wear, except in the most dire circumstances. Given the mountain of evidence and research regarding facial hair in the eighteenth century, and the years of debate over whether and how prevalent beards were during the period, it shouldn't surprise anyone that the debate has been settled.
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