Credit: Navy News, October 18, 2021
The RCN has released a new, more comfortable and gender-neutral peaked cap for its sailors.
Issue of the new cap will be phased in incrementally as stock becomes available, with the goal of having the entire RCN wearing the new peaked cap by November 2022. During this transition period, either the old sea service cap or the new peaked cap may be worn. The new caps will be issued to non-commissioned members first, beginning in September, and to officers in early 2022, based upon production and delivery schedule.
Naval non-commissioned members and naval officer cadets can submit their online order now for the new peaked cap through the Logistiks Unicorp website. All members will receive their first full cap ensemble at no cost. Sizing is the same as is used for the current sea service cap.
One thought on “RCN releases a new sea service cap”
On the assumption that, with the white cover removed, this cap will be a perfectly wearable black cap, why not go back to the pre-1956 practice of wearing the black version in winter and the white version in summer? This would cut in half—or more, depending on the number of months assigned to the winter uniform season—the amount of time the white cover will have to be looked after. More importantly, it would be a highly visible way to do honour to our predecessors of the the Battle of the Atlantic period—think of Max Bernays, for example—while still maintaining a distinctive Canadian look.
It is said that the Royal Navy have decided to do something roughly similar, assigning the black cap, all year round, to submariners only. This, of course, ignores the original winter/summer context of the wearing of the two colours. I do not recommend that we blindly follow their lead once again, for it was a decision of theirs in 1955/6 that eliminated the black cap in the first place. (It seems that, back then, all the “daughter” navies had to fall in line once “Mummie,” the RN, had decided.)
But we can still learn from the RN. It appears that the plan to assign black caps to submariners has been put on hold because the RN women’s cap does not have a black version. If we decide to go this route, we will have to ensure that women will have a black cap for the winter uniform season as well.