[Guzzman]

Hello again Bryan

A few final thoughts. Been looking at the pictures I have just put up. They make the crown of the hat look higher than it does in reality - probably due to the camera angle. My photos make it look more like a straw top hat! Sorry - I'm not a very good photographer. The absence of a tally also makes it seem rather high. Once the hat has a tally on it looks more normal! The pictures also don't show how floppy and flimsy the hat actually is.

Despite the presence of the compass rose I'm inclined to think this hat is actually a fairly late hat. I was actually shown a photograph of the sellers ancestor wearing it and I would have said the photo dated from about 1900. Unfortunately I couldn't see the top of the hat in the picture so I couldn't see if there was a compass rose! I couldn't get a copy of the picture either.

Over the years I have attempted to undertake some research into the manufacture of these hats. The centre of straw hat manufacturing in Britain during the 19th century was Luton in Bedfordshire. Until the Second World War the police there even wore straw police helmets during the summer! Substantial government contracts were awarded to the firms in the town including contracts to supply sennet hats to the Royal Navy. An examination of the specifications listed for the hats show that there could be quite a lot of variation as regards minor details of their manufacture. Although the end result was always a Royal Navy sennet hat different manufacturers produced hats with subtle variations. The industry went into decline partly as the result of straw hats going out of fashion after the First World War and partly as a result of straw hats being produced more cheaply in other parts of the Empire, such as India.

RE the tally. As you say there are two ships with the name H.M.S. LIBERTY which would fit into the period of the sennet hat. The first is the training brig built at Pembroke in 1850 and broken up in 1905. Standard gold wire tallies came into use in the 1860s so unless the tally were an older one put on a later hat I do not think the tally relates to her. The second H.M.S. LIBERTY, the destroyer named in 1913, is just far too late for a tally of that style.
Not much help I'm afraid.

Pete