[RCN]

Thanks very much Pete for the photos & detailed information!
I appreciate your contributions very much!!

Very nice to know the centre in Luton where the hats were produced, news to me, & I also thought that there would have been various manufacturers over a long time frame. It must have been quite an extensive industry in the day & provided employment for many local residents.

My hat is on its way to me & I should have it next week so I too will take more detainled photos of it exterior & interior & post for you as well.
I think the hat I have has the lining still intact, or appears so in the photos I was sent, but I will take shots of the interior as well. I am just hoping it gets to me intact but he has assured me he has packed it very well.

What amazes me about this sennet hat is the fact that they were worn both on shore bases & shore ships & as well at sea. I dont think they had a interior strap that the white caps had - what was called a "chin stay" in the old pre 1968 RCN. I dont expect they were worn day in day out but perhaps for only special occasions, inspections & the like, but I cannot help feeling a fair number of these sennet hats must have blown overboard, they must have taken the wind like sails when any kind of sea was running. So I kind of wonder when a rating lost his hat overboard did he have to purchase a new one or was he issued another replacement??? There must have been a stock of them in stores on board for this very purpose.

The HMS Liberty cap ribbon I dont know if it would be period but I expect it is/was. The collector who sold me the hat told me it wa son the hat when he obtained it many yrs ago & did not appear to be added. Perhaps Liberty's Captain had specific ribbons made to order for his Ship's company (or perhps his barge crew) hats? - we will likely never know tho. The ribbon is not a great concern for me tho, its the authenticity of the hat thats important to me.

I have several bios & books of the Victorian Edwardian period but I dont recall any mention of the 'rigours' of wearing a sennet in any of them.
I really wonder what the ratings in the day thought of them???

I have att'd a period shot {from one of the Illustrated War News of the period & another on a card printed for the presentation taken in late1914} of seaman ratings wearing the sennet on the day they were presented with medals at Buckingham Palace. His was the first Conspicuous Gallantry medal of the Great War. So they would still have been worn early in the war for special occasions.

Again Pete, many thanks & will post photos when I have the hat.....

RCN Bryan