Sennet hat : New South Wales Naval Brigade

Seaman's broad brimmed sennet hat with a flat crown. The centre of the crown is covered with a hexagonal piece of cream parchment. The brim is bound with black cotton tape. There is a single cream painted ventilation rivet on either side of the crown. A black cotton tally band with woven gold lettering 'N.S.W. NAVAL BRIGADE' is tied in a bow at the centre back, with the ribbon tails extending over the back of the brim. The crown is lined with white cotton stamped in black ink with the British coat of arms and has a fine cream net liner attached to it. There is a parchment label inside the left crown stamped 'N.S.W.G.'.

Sennet hats were worn by British seaman from the middle of the nineteenth century until 1920. They were also worn by members of British colonial and dominion navies. This example is a new hat but once in use the wearer usually softened the brim to give it a uniform up-turned appearance. The hats were lacquered with shellac to make them weatherproof. Sennet, a type of straw originally used for hat making by the Japanese and Chinese, was so called by sailors as a contraction of the term 'seven-knit', from the technique of plaiting the straw before the actual manufacture of it into the hat.