Ahoy! This Navy uniform (nick-named the Cracker Jack) was worn by Petty Officer, Second Class Emerson sometime between the turn of the 20th century and the 1950s. When the US entered WWII in 1941, this uniform was due to be replaced by dungarees (light blue chambray shirt & denim bell-bottoms) but some of the older uniforms were still in service into the 1950s. Similar uniforms were worn by many Navies and when cute English Prince Albert Edward was shown cosplaying in a ‘sailor suit’ in 1846, they also became fashionable for kids and were adapted as school uniforms in Australia and Asia. Sailor-boy mascot “Cracker Jack” also sold caramel corn!
This one is meticulously made of 100% Navy Blue wool which retains body heat when wet and is kinda scratchy. Fortunately cotton T-shirts and boxers were worn underneath! The pullover ‘frock’ or ‘jumper’ has an inset chest pocket, yoked seaming front and back, and a squared-off collar called a ‘tar flap’. The specs/care tag/name tag is hidden on the outside, under the collar.
The bell-bottom trousers have rear pockets, a ‘broadfall square fly’ closed with 13 buttons, and a laced gusset at the back waist for fit adjustments. The uniform included black socks and black leather lace-up shoes, a Navy Blue wool or white cotton cap, a black silk or acetate neckerchief and in cold weather, a heavy wool Pea Coat. Petty Officer, Second Class Emerson’s specialty (Radioman) and rank are shown by the red chevrons and lightning bolts on his shoulder patch.
If tar-flap, broadfall, frock, neckerchief, jumper, bell-bottoms and Pea Coat sound archaic, it’s because they are. The uniforms were based on 1700s British Navy uniforms and old-fashioned features went unchanged for decades. Bell-bottom trousers were easily rolled up for swabbing wooden decks with mops. The tar-flap collar is from the days when sailors wore long pony tails they ‘dressed’ with grease or tar; it detached for cleaning. Broadfall fly front trousers were invented in the 1700s. Simpler ‘French fly front’ pants came into use in the 1840s but some American sailors were still grappling with Regency-style broadfall flies in the 1950s. Of course current uniforms lack this elaborate fly, but buttons are still favored due to zippers’ failure rate.
Tradition was strong enough that the mid-century Navy uniform at QBO is quite similar to Navy uniforms back during the Civil War (1861 – 65) but by mid 20th-century, the updates accelerate. Dungarees carried through the Korean War (1950 – 53) and the Vietnam War (early 60s – 1973), with a green tiger-stripe camo added for Navy SEALS. In the 1980s brown and green woodland camo uniforms (CUU) were issued for land-based sailors and carrier flight deck crew. For Desert Storm (1990 – 91), the Iraq War (2003 – 11) and the War in Afghanistan (2001 – 21) we got tan and brown “chocolate chip” desert camo (DBDU) and optional blue coveralls. In 2008 the Navy issued a blue/gray ‘pixelated’ camo derisively nicknamed “blueberries” by sailors unenthusiastic about blending into a blue ocean should they fall overboard. Blueberries were replaced in 2019 by NWU Type III, a unisex pixelated brown and green woodland camo. What’s next? Who can say. It’s not only uniforms that have changed. Today an ‘average’ young American man is 5 ‘8″, weighs just shy of 200 lbs., and has a 40″ waist; in the 1920s the average young man stood 5′ 7″ and was just 150 lbs. This jumper is a ’36R’, S or XS by today’s sizing. See it in person and you can’t help but be struck by how slender this active duty enlisted man actually was. Improved childhood nutrition leading to superior growth these days? Or just crappy fast-food diets? Again, who can say, but most sailors would have trouble fitting into great-grandpa’s uniform!
Tuesday Treasures was started by our staff member, Jeanne Lusignan. Each week she will be featuring items that have been found at our estate sales. If you would like to submit a treasure for Jeanne to feature in a future installment of “Tuesday’s Treasures”, please follow the button below and send us an email! Please attach a few photos of your treasure in a beautiful setting as well as any details you have about your item such as manufacturer, use, age, region of origin. If you don’t know about the piece, that’s okay! We still might be able to research it for you! Don’t forget to tell us what makes this item such a treasure to you!