Able seamen were sailors with two or more years of experience at sea. Keeping a ship working at sea required numerous duties of sailors including working as gunners, carpenters, quartermasters, and cooks, maintaining the sails that helped move ships across the ocean, keeping watch, and cleaning the decks.
Though life at sea offered opportunities for adventure, life was not comfortable for many of those on large naval ships. While officers had certain comforts such as better sleeping quarters and somewhat better food, sailor accommodations were often cramped, and food was generally poor, and pay was often sporadic. Sailors at sea also believed in superstitions at sea, such as not mentioning a previous ship lost at sea, wearing an earring for good luck, and certain events predicting weather patterns.
Reproduction Clothing and Equipment
This sailor’s clothes, including the blue wool jacket, are tight-fitting and were designed for physical work aboard ship. He also sports blue wool breeches, a white linen shirt, an off-white waistcoat, and a red scarf. The sailor’s hat helps reflect exposure from the sun on the open seas.
Click for a larger view.This Able Seaman wears clothing that allows him flexibility of movement while working aboard a ship.
Click for a larger view.This 1808 illustration depicts a British sailor. Although created several decades after the American Revolution, similar clothing, such as the scarf, jacket and hat would have been worn by sailors of the eighteenth century as well.
Click for a larger view.This image, taken from an eighteenth century manual on signal flag communication, instructs readers how to communicate numbers to other ships at sea. Sailors familiar with the signal system, as well as how to attach flags to a ship's rigging, would fly these flags to signal numerical information.
Click for a larger view.This sea service pistol would have been used by officers and men during the boarding of enemy ships. When unloaded, the pistol could also be used as a club in hand-to-hand combat.
Click for a larger view.Compasses, such as this example, were used by sailors and officers aboard ships to locate cardinal directions. These instruments were especially useful on the open sea as there would have been no discernable landmarks such as mountains or structures to help determine one's location.
Click for a larger view.Sextants were navigational instruments used by sailors and officers at sea to locate their ship's position.
