This hair wrapping business is really more complicated than it looks on the surface because of the rigid class strucutures of the period and the even more rigid hierarchies in the military that often hinge on class as well.
The naval lieutenants had a sub-grading or pecking order of status within the rank of lieutenant -- from 1st on down -- and there was no duplication, so you couldn't ask the other 2nd lt. to help you out in a pinch because there was only one of same grade within that rank.
Dude, no need to be sorry. I enjoy yapping about this shit and I'm glad someone in the fandom is interested enough to ask.
Personal grooming among people of 'the better sort' was a thing to be done by servants. Now I can see the boys in the wardroom tidying each other up a bit, but not doing the whole hairdressing thing. And Bush getting his hair done by a junior officer just sounds weirder and weirder the more I think about it.
The hair wrapping issue gets complicated because there is historic stuff that isn't shown in either the movies or talked about in the books that would satisfy the problem. Officers had servants -- army and navy. (The navy also carried with it a contingent of women that were not prostitutes, thanksverymuch, but the wives of warrant officers and the ship's skilled craftsmen like the ship's carpenter, etc.) So those navy ships that were sailing directly into conflict had a crapload of people on them that weren't fighting crew.
The women would try to make a few pennies on these voyages by doing laundry, etc. Completely inside the realm of possibility that one of them would do Bush's hair for a few coins, but since Forester has no women on his ships that flies right out the window.
So trying to blend the historical options within the context of what Forester gives us, my guess for Bush's choice for hairdressing help would have to be one of the ratings as he has no servant, there are no women, and having a tie-buddy in the wardroom is too weird because of the way the navy is structured. Even though he doesn't think well of most of the people in his command, I just can't come up with anything else that would logically fit within the constraints of the Forester canon.
1b. Bush would have no trouble getting a replacement tape in the Comte's home if for the presence of Marie and the serving women alone. Women's dress and grooming used tape and ribbons like mad and this stuff was interchangeable. Not hard to believe that there was a bunch of black tape about that would be suitable.
The Dutch officer thing. The black wrapped queue was not a distinctive British style. It would mark Bush as an older man (obviously) and a veteran of some service (also see wooden leg. *G*). Definitely limited to older style military fashion at this point but not exclusively English.
6. The water has to last between rations. But they didn't have to use all that much to shave with shaving soap and straight razor. Just a little bit of water for the soap and you don't need water to wipe down the razor between strokes. You can do that effectively with a towel. And the shaving thing is pretty obssessive. Even when Bush is in dire straights in FC, Brown is shaving him.
And I have no other answer. *G* I really don't know what the physical setup was for the fresh water sharing in the wardroom. It's possible there was a communal cask which relied on the code of honour among officers to only use their own ration's worth. Also possible that they drew the ration individually and kept it with their own gear. I do know that storage wouldn't have been in anything breakable like glass or crockery. And you don't find tin canteens aboard ships. Pretty much everything was held in casks of some sort.
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branchandroot
christ, I'm a windbag and I'm making no sense
Date: 2006-01-22 11:41 pm (UTC)The naval lieutenants had a sub-grading or pecking order of status within the rank of lieutenant -- from 1st on down -- and there was no duplication, so you couldn't ask the other 2nd lt. to help you out in a pinch because there was only one of same grade within that rank.
Dude, no need to be sorry. I enjoy yapping about this shit and I'm glad someone in the fandom is interested enough to ask.
Personal grooming among people of 'the better sort' was a thing to be done by servants. Now I can see the boys in the wardroom tidying each other up a bit, but not doing the whole hairdressing thing. And Bush getting his hair done by a junior officer just sounds weirder and weirder the more I think about it.
The hair wrapping issue gets complicated because there is historic stuff that isn't shown in either the movies or talked about in the books that would satisfy the problem. Officers had servants -- army and navy. (The navy also carried with it a contingent of women that were not prostitutes, thanksverymuch, but the wives of warrant officers and the ship's skilled craftsmen like the ship's carpenter, etc.) So those navy ships that were sailing directly into conflict had a crapload of people on them that weren't fighting crew.
The women would try to make a few pennies on these voyages by doing laundry, etc. Completely inside the realm of possibility that one of them would do Bush's hair for a few coins, but since Forester has no women on his ships that flies right out the window.
So trying to blend the historical options within the context of what Forester gives us, my guess for Bush's choice for hairdressing help would have to be one of the ratings as he has no servant, there are no women, and having a tie-buddy in the wardroom is too weird because of the way the navy is structured. Even though he doesn't think well of most of the people in his command, I just can't come up with anything else that would logically fit within the constraints of the Forester canon.
1b. Bush would have no trouble getting a replacement tape in the Comte's home if for the presence of Marie and the serving women alone. Women's dress and grooming used tape and ribbons like mad and this stuff was interchangeable. Not hard to believe that there was a bunch of black tape about that would be suitable.
The Dutch officer thing. The black wrapped queue was not a distinctive British style. It would mark Bush as an older man (obviously) and a veteran of some service (also see wooden leg. *G*). Definitely limited to older style military fashion at this point but not exclusively English.
6. The water has to last between rations. But they didn't have to use all that much to shave with shaving soap and straight razor. Just a little bit of water for the soap and you don't need water to wipe down the razor between strokes. You can do that effectively with a towel. And the shaving thing is pretty obssessive. Even when Bush is in dire straights in FC, Brown is shaving him.
And I have no other answer. *G* I really don't know what the physical setup was for the fresh water sharing in the wardroom. It's possible there was a communal cask which relied on the code of honour among officers to only use their own ration's worth. Also possible that they drew the ration individually and kept it with their own gear. I do know that storage wouldn't have been in anything breakable like glass or crockery. And you don't find tin canteens aboard ships. Pretty much everything was held in casks of some sort.