'Seaman'

Coloured lithograph by M and N Hanhart after William Sharpe, 1854. Printed by Gambart and Company, 1854.

Sailors were assigned to various jobs according to their skill. Topmen worked on the rigging, Forecastle men looked after the anchors and attended to other desk duties, gunners manned the cannons, and others worked as stokers in the new steam ships. At the end of one voyage they might be drafted straight away to another ship and were often at sea for several years. Before 1857 there was no uniform for Royal Navy seamen, who usually wore white baggy trousers with a short blue shirt or jacket.