Mariner's cap

{{short description|Cap of type originally often worn by seafarers}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2026}} {{Use British English|date=November 2010}} thumb|upright=1.35|A Greek fisherman's cap

A '''mariner's cap''', also called a '''skipper's cap''', '''sailor's cap''', '''Dutch Boy's cap''', '''Greek cap''', '''fiddler's cap''', or '''breton cap''' is a peaked cap, usually made from black or navy blue wool felt, but also from corduroy or blue denim. Originally popular with seafarers, it is often associated with sailing and maritime settings, especially fishing, yachting and recreational sailing. It has sometimes become a fashion item in the West, for example being worn by John Lennon in the mid-1960s.

== Eastern Europe == [[File:Vladimir Lenin and Lev Kamenev.jpg|thumb|right|Lenin wearing his signature cap, 1920s]] Caps of this type were introduced during the first quarter of the 19th century, as cheap and practical workwear for sailors and factory workers in Europe. These were particularly popular in Russia, especially among the urban Jewish community, and later gained the nickname '''fiddler cap''' due to their use by Topol<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/character/ch0016988/|title=Tevye (Character)|website=IMDb|access-date=24 June 2017}}</ref> as Tevye the Milkman in the film adaptation of ''Fiddler on the Roof''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067093/?ref_=nv_sr_1|title=Fiddler on the Roof (1971)|website=IMDb|access-date=24 June 2017}}</ref>

A black version of this cap, with a narrow crown and a band embroidered with foliage, was known as a '''kasket''' or '''Hamburg cap''' (also see Central European caps below). It was introduced in response to the Tsarist authorities banning more traditional Jewish headwear in 19th-century Russia, and was later commonly seen on Kibbutz farmers in Israel during the 1950s.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u1i0dz6p9O4C&dq=jewish+kasket&pg=PA135|title=Holocaust and Redemption|first=Mati|last=Alon|date=24 June 2017|publisher=Trafford Publishing|isbn=9781412003582|access-date=24 June 2017|via=Google Books}}</ref> This hat was worn daily by Hasidic Jewish boys in Britain, Germany, Russia, Poland, and America from the early Victorian era until the mid 20th century, but in the present day it is generally restricted to Shabbat and other formal occasions.{{citation needed|date=January 2019}}

Leading Old Bolsheviks including Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky, Felix Dzerzhinsky, and Joseph Stalin also favored these caps during the Russian Revolution and Russian Civil War.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.footagefarm.com/lenin.shtml|title=Footage Farm: Lenin|website=www.footagefarm.com|access-date=24 June 2017}}</ref> Dark blue and army green variants with a red star badge later became part of the uniform for Great Patriotic War era political commissars along with a black leather reefer jacket. Similar caps were also worn by communists and socialists from other countries, including Chinese Communist Party chairman Mao Zedong and, more recently, former British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.konbini.com/en/lifestyle/jeremy-corbyn-socialist-style-guide/|title=How To Dress Like Jeremy Corbyn|first=Lydia|last=Morrish|date=19 April 2017|access-date=24 June 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2015/dec/14/jeremy-corbyn-hat-buy-of-the-day|title=Jeremy Corbyn's hat – buy of the day|first=Morwenna|last=Ferrier|date=14 December 2015|access-date=24 June 2017|newspaper=The Guardian}}</ref>

== Central Europe == Caps of this type were once popular with seafaring folk on Germany's North Sea and Baltic coastlines and various sub-types have emerged.

=== ''Elbsegler'' === thumb|upright|''Elbsegler'' The '''''Elbsegler''''' ("Elbe sailor") is a simple, low sailor's cap made of black or dark blue naval cloth. It has a border about three centimetres high and has leather storm straps at the front of the hat band. Nowadays, plastic is often used instead of patent leather.<ref name = Hamburglexikon>Franklin Kopitzsch and Daniel Tilgner (eds.): ''Hamburglexikon.'' 4th, updated and extended special edition. Ellert & Richter, Hamburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-8319-0373-3, p. 202.</ref>

=== ''Altstädter'' === A somewhat taller variant of the ''Elbsegler'' is the '''''Altstädter''''' ("Old Towner") (the hatband is higher). Instead of a storm strap above the peak, it has a twisted cord.<ref name = Hamburglexikon/><ref name = "Abendblatt">[https://www.abendblatt.de/ratgeber/specials/article106957569/elbsegler-muetze- fuer-die-kueste.html '' Elbsegler-Mütze für die Küste''] ["Elbsegler cap for the Coast"] at abendblatt.de, 25 June 2002.</ref> The peak is decorated with oak leaves and referred to as a braided peak. The cap cord is also braided.

=== ''Fleetenkieker'' === The '''''Fleetenkieker''''' is similar to the ''Elbsegler'' above, but the crown is slightly larger and softer. This form of the mariner's cap is named after the workers on Hamburg's waterways, known as ''Fleetenkieker''.

=== Heligoland pilot's cap === The '''Heligoland pilot's cap''' (''Helgoländer Lotsenmütze'') or Elbe pilot's cap (''Elblotsenmütze'' or ''Elblotse''), is specially made for Hamburg's harbour pilots. The hat has a high hat band and a small crown, the peak is decorated with oak leaves. The hat cord can be twisted or braided. The ''Elblotse'' is similar to the Prince Henry cap,<ref name = "Abendblatt"/> and is therefore often confused with it, so that in the trade the Prince Henry cap is often marketed as the '''Schmidt cap''' (''Schmidtmütze'').{{efn|German chancellor Helmut Schmidt often wore a Heligoland pilot's cap, which was often mistaken for a Prince Henry cap.}} The Prince Henry cap in the Kiel City Museum, known as the original, is a hat of the imperial navy with a lacquered, not fabric crown, and is decorated with royal insignia (royal oak leaves, cocard and crown) and a storm strap, not a hat cord. Based on this, the military version would be a Prince Henry cap and the civilian variant, should be renamed an ''Elblotse''. Otherwise, the two types of cap have similar proportions. The ''Elblotse'' was the trademark headgear of German Federal Minister and later Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, hence its nickname, the Schmidt cap.

== Western Europe == [[File:Jeremy Corbyn (405506730).jpg|thumb|upright|Jeremy Corbyn wearing a corduroy fiddler cap]]

By the 1880s, caps of this type were widespread in Greece and Turkey, and featured a decorative cord chinstrap, and a distinctive black embroidered ribbon on the peak.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://callananhats.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/what-is-greek-fishermans-cap.html|title=What is a greek Fisherman's cap|website=callananhats.blogspot.co.uk|date=9 January 2015 |access-date=24 June 2017}}</ref> The traditional costume for many Greek coastal villagers, comprising the cap, roll neck sweater, loose trousers, and tall boots featured in the film adaptation of ''The Guns of Navarone'', as the disguise for the British agents.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054953/mediaviewer/rm968281600|title=The Guns of Navarone (1961)|website=IMDb|access-date=24 June 2017}}</ref> Black or navy blue variants with a white crown known as '''''Tellermützen''''' were also commonly worn by university students in Germany, Denmark, and Sweden from the turn of the century until the present day.

== As workwear == Black or navy blue caps of this type served as workwear for merchant navy sailors throughout the 20th century. Caps with decorative gold braid, either in the standard navy blue or with a white top, were favored by the skippers of sailing yachts, motor boats, and other small pleasure craft.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sLzMepsGo2UC&dq=greek+fisherman's+cap&pg=PA181|title=MotorBoating|date=1 September 1979|access-date=24 June 2017|via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MqQ0Bf7MjxUC&dq=greek+fisherman's+cap&pg=PA24|title=Yachting|date=1 December 2002|access-date=24 June 2017|via=Google Books}}</ref> From the 1930s until the 1970s a waterproof version, known as a '''mechanic's cap''', was worn with a blue boiler suit (coveralls) as part of the uniform for truckers, gas station employees and breakdown men.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.thevintagenews.com/2016/08/07/photos-american-truck-drivers-1930s-1940s-2-2/|title=Meet some of the cool American truck drivers from the 1930s and 1940s ...|date=7 August 2016|access-date=24 June 2017}}</ref> In the 1950 edition of Tintin and the Land of Black Gold, Thomson and Thompson wear these caps when they go undercover as Autocart mechanics.<ref>Land of Black Gold, page 1 and pages 5-6</ref>

== Modern use == During the 1950s, black leather variants of the '''Greek Fisherman's cap''' were popular among the Ton-up boy and Greaser subculture, due to their use by Marlon Brando in ''The Wild One''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://satyrsmc.wordpress.com/|title=The Long Road Forward - The Satyrs Motorcycle Club and our Leather Community|website=The Long Road Forward - The Satyrs Motorcycle Club and our Leather Community|access-date=24 June 2017}}</ref> These appear in The Warriors as part of the uniform of the Rogues gang. Similar caps embellished with chains and metal studs were worn by many members of the 1970s black power movement as an alternative to the beret.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/civilrightsmovem00levy|url-access=registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/civilrightsmovem00levy/page/30 30]|quote=black power leather cap.|title=The Civil Rights Movement|first=Peter B.|last=Levy|date=24 June 1998|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=9780313298547 |access-date=24 June 2017|via=Internet Archive}}</ref> At the same time, a knitted grey or black version, resembling a wool Rasta hat with a leather peak, gained popularity among some expatriate Jamaican Rastafarians in Britain and the US to accommodate their dreadlocks.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tiEvBQAAQBAJ&dq=rasta+hat&pg=PA249|title=Ethnic Dress in the United States: A Cultural Encyclopedia|first1=Annette|last1=Lynch|first2=Mitchell D.|last2=Strauss|date=30 October 2014|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=9780759121508|access-date=24 June 2017|via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PmvSk13sIc0C&dq=peak+rasta+cap&pg=PA546|title=Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage|first1=Richard|last1=Allsopp|first2=Jeannette|last2=Allsopp|date=24 June 2017|publisher=University of the West Indies Press|isbn=9789766401450|access-date=24 June 2017|via=Google Books}}</ref>

From the mid to late 1960s, the Greek Fisherman's cap became a desirable counterculture accessory for both sexes, due to its use by The Beatles during their US tour, and by folk musicians such as Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie, and Donovan.{{failed verification|date=June 2017}} The cap underwent a revival among young British hipster women during the late 1990s, and again during the 2010s due to a nostalgia for 1970s fashion.{{cn|date=July 2020}}

== Footnotes == {{Notelist}}

== References == {{Reflist|30em}}

== External links == {{commonscat|Skipper caps|position=left}}

Category:Hats Category:Caps Category:1960s fashion Category:1970s fashion category:1980s fashion Category:2010s fashion Category:Greek clothing Category:Russian clothing Category:Victorian fashion Category:19th-century fashion Category:20th-century fashion category:21st-century fashion Category:Maritime culture Category:German clothing category:Ukrainian clothing category:Gilded Age category:Spanish clothing Category:British clothing