I love a good deck jacket, and whilst the blue jungle cloth jacket get most of the attention, it's the humble peacoat that really started it all. The word peacoat is stems from the Dutch word 'pije', which means a coat made of thick wool, and and likely comes from the early 18th century. But it was the British and the heyday of the Royal Navy which really made the peacoat synonymous with the sea. The US Navy, in the very late 1800s would take inspiration from the British reefer jacket and create their own peacoat which, though updated though various iterations, only ceased to be issued in 2020.
This particular example is from the heyday of the peacoat, WW2. It was made only a mile or two from my house in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, with the contract number 17204 dating it to November 1942. This is a very rare deadstock example, which includes the paper tag in the neck which is always gone, and it doesn't have (nor ever did have) a NAME/RATE tag, so this is likely a transitional piece between the woven and printed labels.
Condition
Deadstock and perfect.
Size:
- Tagged a 40
- Fits a medium/large
- Pit to pit 21.5" - This fits my 40" chest with a little room
- Shoulder to shoulder 20"
- Shoulder to cuff 25"
- Collar to hem 32"