Er, hi. This is Daniel again, but I've screwed up my regular account and can't post from it. Thus I am appearing temporarily under the humiliating moniker "Oops."
I note that this thread started with the claim that pirates cannot justify unusually fine clothing by saying they stole it, because, as with German landsknechts, their superior officers would take it from them. The Davis/La Buse incident suggests that the very opposite was sometimes true with pirates; the pirates would demand that their superior officers yield up their finery to the men.
Foxe wrote,
I would point out that there was far more clothing to steal than just the crew's own clothes. Clothing was also cargo. And the clothing in the seamen's chests was sometimes surprisingly good.
As it happens, I have inventories of two prizes that show some of the clothing available to be plundered, from J. Franklin Jameson's Privateering and Privacy in the Colonial Period.
The merchantman Providence was taken by a privateer en route from Falmouth, England to Virginia in 1673. Here are the clothes that she had aboard (I exclude clothes plainly labeled as women's, since the vast majority of pirates would not have worn this).
13 pairs of French falls (collars)
11 pairs plain shoes
6 pairs men's woolen hose
12 pairs Irish cloth hose
2 old hats
2 new shirts
20 pairs worsted hose
1 coat (worn)
1 doublet (worn)
2 pairs breeches (worn)
22 pairs men's French falls
4 pairs pumps with heels
12 pairs boys and girls shoes
30 men's plain shoes
24 pairs men's French falls
10 pairs men's plain shoes
40 pairs French falls and wooden heel shoes for men and women
18 pairs men's plain shoes
2 pairs boys' plain shoes
66 low crown black hats
3 gowns
2 Jasto Corps (justaucorps)
4 stuffe coats for men
2 stuffe vests for boys
2 boys' little coats
2 children's coats
2 scarlet parragon (double camlet) coats
2 children's parragon coats
1 boy's coat
5 coats and breeches for men
2 men's cloaks
12 men's white worsted hose, rat-eaten
23 low crown black hats
16 pieces of taffeta ribbon, several colors
20 pieces black taffeta ribbon
1,728 coat buttons
3 straw hats
[items below are marked as having been taken from the seamen's chests]
Chest 1
2 pairs children's hose
144 breast buttons
1 silk neck cloth
1 demity waist coat
1 old shirt
1 coat
1 pair breeches
Chest 2
12 pairs men's white worsted hose
5 foul shirts
3 pairs foul drawers
1 pair fine gloves
2 stuffe coats
1 pair breeches, waistcoat and jacket
1 waistcoat and jacket more
1 pair new and 3 pair old shoes
1 pair yarn stockings
3 neckcloths
2 pairs hose
Chest 3
6 men's coats
1 stuffe pair breeches and doublet
3 pairs cloth breeches
1 old doublet
2 pairs Irish stockings
3 pairs children's hose
5 boy's hats
1 periwig
2 white tiffany hoods
2 pairs of gloves
3 bands (collars), 1 laced
2 pairs of sleeves
276 buttons
1 child's silk cap
How much of this was "fine" is not clear, but such items as fine gloves, a lace collar, a silk neckcloth, a periwig, scarlet double camlet coats, and tiffany hoods certainly sound pretty fancy.
We may note, as a contribution to the Never-Ending Debate, that there are many shoes but no boots.
The Dutch merchantman Willem was taken by privateers in 1745 while en route from Amsterdam to Curacao. It did not have nearly as much clothing as the Providence, but unlike with the former ship we have some idea of its value.
Item Value
504 men's and women's gloves 126 pounds
1 pair silk stockings 2 pounds 5 shillings
6 pairs embroidered vamps for
shoes and slippers 6 pounds
2 pr. stockings & 1 pr. mittens 5 pounds (!)
1 pair fustian breeches, 6 pairs
sleezes, 2 pair cotton stockings 12 pounds
Total value of clothing: 151 pounds, 5 shillings.
Note the value of the gloves comes to 10 shillings a pair, more than the price of a whole kersey jacket from the Navy slops! I would guess that these were pretty good gloves.
*I assume Foxe is speaking figuratively when he says "four men and a dog." Johnson's General History usually reports considerably larger crews than four men aboard pirates' prizes.