IN BIG DEMAND

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23442, 5 March 1938, Page 19

IN BIG DEMAND

AMERICAN SAILORS' CAPS SHORTAGE ON THE LOUISVILLE (Special to Daily Times) AUCKLAND, Mar. 4. No caps can be distributed among their friends by the 600 sailors of the visiting American cruiser Louisville while the ship is at Auckland. This friendly international naval custom was practised so extensively in Australia that when the Louisville arrived her clothing stores were almost completely exhausted of replacements. The American bluejacket's cap has apparently always been coveted by the temporary hosts of the sailors in strange ports, and so insistent were the demands in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Hobart for these souvenirs that many of the men returned to their ship hatless. The sailors had to wear their reserve caps, and then after a while they had to draw on the stores until at last, when the Louisville cleared Hobart, it was obbious that if the men were as generous in Auckland as they had been in Australia some of them would have to return to the United States without any head-covering at all unless more were made in the ship's tailoring shop. Many of the hats were given away in Australia. Others, however, were just taken off their owner's heads. Some were even snatched off in the streets by cyclists with an eye for picturesqueness in headgear. The French cruiser Jeanne d'Arc also lost a number of berets, the pom-poms on the top being the attraction in their case.