PMarione
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Joined: 26 Mar 2007
Posts: 883
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 Posted: Wed Sep 01, 2010 3:52 pm Post subject: on beards and moustaches |
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| Quote: | Beards and moustaches were never seen in the navy till Crimean times.
The first Captain who ever dared upon the innovation was Lord John Hay, in the Wasp and, as to the hairy faces of his gig's crew he added red caps, no small sensation was created . . .
The first Captain who had the temerity to invade the sacred precincts of the Admiralty with hirsute 'fixings' was Captain Moorsom, of percussion shell fame, who, on his return from the Black Sea, 'repaired' to the sanctum of the First Sea Lord to report himself .
Admiral Sir Maurice Fitzhardinge Berkeley . . . pale with rage and astonishment was not in a condition to do more than wave the daring intruder to the door with the cutting remark: 'Horseguards next door '!
The late Admiral Sir Alexander Milne told me of an eccentric Captain, who insisted upon all his officers wearing tall white beaver hats, even Midshipmen having to go aloft in them. |
from W. Laird Clowes' The Royal Navy, vol 6, p 211-212, quoting from At School and at Sea by Martello Tower, 1899. |
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