Royal Navy Traditions in other Navies

[phil1972]

Has anyone got any good dits about Royal Navy Traditions in other Countries Navies. My understand and experience is that Australia and New Zealand have kept a lot of the traditions (even some the RN have disposed of) but Canada and South Africa have decided to plough their own furrow.

It is interesting also to note the Traditions that are maintained in India, Japan and the USA that have Royal Navy origins.

 

[jambosun]

One that I know of is a drinking game which could have given rise to the phrase 'to take sombody down a peg or two'. In HMS MONMOUTH we had a Peg Pot which was a huge tankard with pegs spaced evenly down the inside. The Pot was much wider at the bottom than the top and the object of the game was to challenge the opposite team to drink a certain amount in one, in effect taking them down a peg or two. It's easy at the start but as you get lower you are drinking much more and it becomes a struggle. When we played it against a Canadian ship they were obviously well practised and we were the ones who were taken down. Still a good quick way to get pissed though!

As well as traditions, just about every Navy in the world has their officers uniforms based on the RN. Pipes using the Bosun's Call is still routinley practised in several navies.

 

[wardmaster]

It was Winston Churchill who famously said that the traditions of the Royal Navy are Rum, Sodomy and The Lash. Well the tot is no more and I'm told that, unfortunately, flogging is no longer encouraged. That leaves sodomy, which by now is probably compulsory. :roll:

 

[Squirrel]

I've noticed that Junior ranks of most other navies wear the blue collar with a number of stripes around it. Now as a sprog in Raleigh, I remember being taught that the 3 stripes on a pussers collar were to denote Lord Nelson's 3 great naval victories. That being the case, have other countries' navies just knicked the design because it look rather dapper?

 

[Jack77]

When I joined the RAN I was told that the collar was to stop tar from a pigtail staining your jumper, the 3 stripes around it commemorated Nelsons victories at Copenhagen, the Nile and Trafalgar, the silk was actually a gunners sweat rag stained black by gunpowder smoke and the lanyard was to hold a knife. The bells had 7 creases for the 7 seas and were designed to be rolled up easily for scrubbing the deck and could be used as a life bouy by tying off the ends.

Easy to see that all this came from the RN originally and we even dressed females in it from about 1990, but sadly the tiddley, tailor made rigs are no more. Junior rates now wear a shirt and tie on most occasions with a bastardised version of the old rig brought out on ceremonial occasions. :sad:

 

[grefs]

The bells had 7 creases for the 7 seas and were designed to be rolled up easily for scrubbing the deck and could be used as a life bouy by tying off the ends.]

Depending on on your height the bell bottoms had either 7 creases, as you have said, or if you were shorter, 5 creases, for the 5 oceans.

 

[dhoby_bucket]

5'7" and above had 7 creases, below had 5..

All at pay book width

 

[Six_and_a_Half]

I always understood that the lanyard was supposed to be used for the firing of the ships cannons.

Also I was told that Nelson's victories had nothing to do with the three stripes on the collar. When the square rig first came into the Navy, sailors made their own collar and would sew one, two or three white stripes in as they choose. It wasn't until the 1850's that it was decided to standardised the collar at three stripes, since this one was most popular.

Jack77 is sadly correct about the bastardised rig. Traditionally the trousers were turned inside out for ironing to protect them, hence the creases were inverted, and the creases up the side were to fold the trousers down.

Today the trousers have 'normal' creases and no creases up the side.

 

[PartTimer]

When I joined the RAN I was told that the collar was to stop tar from a pigtail staining your jumper, the 3 stripes around it commemorated Nelsons victories at Copenhagen, the Nile and Trafalgar, the silk was actually a gunners sweat rag stained black by gunpowder smoke and the lanyard was to hold a knife. The bells had 7 creases for the 7 seas and were designed to be rolled up easily for scrubbing the deck and could be used as a life bouy by tying off the ends.

Easy to see that all this came from the RN originally and we even dressed females in it from about 1990, but sadly the tiddley, tailor made rigs are no more. Junior rates now wear a shirt and tie on most occasions with a bastardised version of the old rig brought out on ceremonial occasions. :sad:

JRs in the RN now wear the tropical shirt - a step down from the old white front, but a step up from wearing 4s which had increasingly become prevalent.

 

[sulzer]

Bell Bottoms: In an old Seamanship Maual (1932?) it stated that the creases could done using the "loom of an oar" presumably this was done on the upperdeck!

 

[rugger_bob]

the silk was actually a gunners sweat rag stained black by gunpowder smoke and the lanyard was to hold a knife.


Wasnt the silk a comforter, given to sailors by there sweethearts as a reminder of there loved one ?

And the Lanyard a yard of string to fire the cannons ?

 

[sgtpepperband]

Golden Rivet: Comes from "somewhere for the Old Salts and Sea Dads to ditch their gash"... perhaps?! :twisted: