Seamans blue full dress trousers: 3rd Class Petty Officer R S Cowan, United States Navy Construction Battalion

Pair of seaman's dark blue wool undress square rig trousers with a fall front. There are two inset welt pockets in the front waistband. One only closes with a metal zip. Fourteen black plastic buttons, each impressed with an anchor, secure the fall front. The centre back of trousers can be adjusted by tape which is threaded through eight pairs of eyelets. They have been taken in at the back in three places after the original manufacture. There is a printed cotton
manufacturer's label attached to the inside of the left front pocket. It is marked in ink 'R.S. Cowan'.

Associated with 3rd Class Petty Officer (Baker) Richard Cowan of the Seabees United States Navy Construction Battalion, the 'Seabees'. The Seabees were formed from Naval Reserve Construction Units after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour. The battalion was made up of 'builders who could fight' while working on maritime construction projects during the war throughout the Pacific and Euopean theatres. Cowan served on Hawaii and on the island of Tinian, north of Guam, in the Marianas group.