Sea Daddy Observations by Gilles Poirier
The Square Part
Well, more trivia about submarine life coming up! What I want to cover at this time is all about our old uniform (the square rig it was called, due to the square collar). It was most likely the worse fitting uniform ever made. The jumper was the worse ill-fitting piece of kit. It was very tight at the waist and torso, it had two inside pockets along the chest area; it was so tight that you could not even fit a deck of cigarettes.
| The collar was not part of the jumper; it was attached to the inside of the jumper with buttons. Now that collar was supposed to be a real dark Navy blue, with a crisp white trim. Here the name of the game was to look like an old tar as quickly as possible, so you washed this collar as often as you could, till it became almost pale blue…! You then looked like an old salt! |  |
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These Canadian submariners at Fleet School in 1967 sported jumpers that differed little from that worn by Bill Turvey who served in the Royal Navy during WW I before emigrating to St. Thomas, Ontario.
Black Silk
Under the collar you had to wear a black silk, along with a white lanyard. You could change this silk to a white one if you were getting married in uniform. This silk, had a black ribbon bow at the very bottom to keep it in place, this had to be kept trimmed at all times, and the ends cut like an inverted "V" and this "V" had to be waxed to keep it from fraying.
Port and Starboard Hat
 | In this picture, Jim Brennan is wearing a white hat, often known as a "Port and Starboard hat" since the makers of this hat had the inside upper section trimmed with a green silk on one side a red silk on the opposite side. |  |
During your basic training you were not allowed to wear the white hat. You were issued a black one, with of course a hat tally, only when you graduated were you allowed to wear the white hat.
The Gun Shirt
 | Above, Jim Brennan is wearing a black jersey that was part of the winter kit. The white gun shirt, with the dark blue trim was warm weather/tropical wear. Left: Dave Yeo wears the white gun shirt as he receives his certificate from Cdr. Tate in 1970. (Photo Courtesy of SAOC) |
Kit Muster
During your training in Cornwallis you had regular "kit muster" where your kit had to be laid out on your bed for inspection, and it had to be rolled…! Your kit consisted of uniforms (including a great coat for winter wear and gloves), underwear, towels, socks, shoes/boots, sewing kit, shoe shine bag, seamanship manual. While not part of the regulation kit that was issued, we also had a Burberry trench coat which we had to purchase ourselves. It was an expensive coat and remember that when I started in the Navy in 1962 the salary was $80.00 a month for a single man and $120 for a married man.
The Dreaded Red Thread You were issued also with a large rubber stamp and had to stamp your name (first initial and last name in full, along with your matriculation number under it) on all pieces of your kit. Once that was done, you had to go over each of the letters with red embroidery thread which was quite tedious. Blessed was the sailor who had a short name like J. Smith; I had a friend whose name was J.F.R. Tranchemontagne, it took him hours to sew his name. By the way, I still have my shoe shine bag here. |  |
We don't have a photo of Gilles shoe bag so we have chosen to show you a 'Housewife' owned by a WW II sailor from St. Thomas, Ontario. He was one of the lucky ones - his name was Ken Rice.
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