Sailors and fishermen once wore knitwear with a wide, scoop neck – a ‘boat neck’, designed for an easy entrance and exit, even with hands numbed from the cold seawater. From the 16th century, variations in ecru, black-sheep or dark blue worsted wool were found up and down the country. In Ireland seafarers preferred the Aran jumper (the Geansai Árainn) – knitted in cable patterns using a báinín yarn of unscoured wool that retained its natural lanolin oil, helping keep the garment waterproof.
Northern England and Scotland had the ‘gansey’, worn without an undershirt for maximum insulating effect, handmade by fishermen’s wives using knit patterns personal to their husbands – nets, anchors, diamonds, ropes, ladders, etc. – each fishing village and harbour having its own design. The patterns had a grim purpose – should the wearer be shipwrecked, bodies washed up on the shore could be identified by their ganseys and returned to their families for burial.
In the south of England the guernsey is probably the original and oldest seaman’s knit, dating back to the late 15th century. The still-popular sweater’s name came into use after a royal grant was obtained to import wool from England and re-export knitted goods to Normandy and Spain during the reign of Charles I. History reports that guernseys were worn by navalmen at the Battle of Trafalgar, while Mary, Queen of Scots was said to be so enamoured with her fisherman’s tricot that she had the royal wardrobe staff run her up a pair of guernsey-knit leggings for her February 1587 execution.
Then, in 1914, warfare went underwater – U-boats v E-class submarines – requiring new naval knits. The Admiralty instructed the British War Office to supply thick wool sweaters in ecru, grey and navy blue. For improved insulation, these ‘Submariner’ jumpers had a new innovation – a high ‘roll neck’.
During WWII, submariners’ woolly attire was co-opted by RAF pilots looking to add a little swashbuckle to the skies, and, in later years, beatniks and 1960s groovers including Mick Jagger joined the roll call of roll-neck wearers.
Who wore the submariner best? Dennis Waterman in the 1968 cult classic The Junction? Or Jürgen Prochnow in 1981 thriller Das Boot? (A Deutsche Marine variation with a quarter zip for the Germans.) Let’s fly the Jolly Roger and the royal ensign for Jack Hawkins in 1953 epic The Cruel Sea, his hardy corvette commander Captain George Ericson fighting the brutal North Atlantic in a duffel coat and a high-necked, ecru chunky knit. “Torpedoes! Fifteen miles astern!”
