NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Which Cocked Hat?
From: Robin Stuart
Date: 2019 Aug 7, 06:31 -0700
From: Robin Stuart
Date: 2019 Aug 7, 06:31 -0700
Frank,
I tend to agree that things are not clear cut and an unambiguous conclusion will probably not be possible. If it could have been demonstrated that the expression arose at a time and place when “cocked hat” only existed the popular psyche in the naval context and the tricorne hat was largely unfamiliar, then I think it could be plausibly argued that the term referred to the officer’s bicorne. However the persistence of phrases like “knocked into a cocked hat” at the turn of the last century definitely muddies the water,
Regards,
Robin Stuart
File:
