usmma caps & cap badge timeline

kings point caps

The United States Maritime Commission Cadet Corps cap is the nucleus around which today’s headwear of the Regiment of Midshipmen at the United States Merchant Marine Academy is based. Following United States Navy regulations, the design of the original Cadet Corps cap was contemporary for the period: a standard Naval service cap with wide crown and wide visor. The following regulations created the distinctive maritime cap look which stood out from caps of the other armed services and maritime professions:

The construction of the cap remained relatively static through the 1940s into the 1960s. With improvements in materials, the wicker frame was abandoned in the 1980s and was replaced with a lattice of plastic and synthetic fabrics; the waterproofed cotton poplins gave way to polyester blends – yet the overall appearance of the cap remained the same as the cap of 40 years prior. Re-thinking cap use, Bancroft – a major supplier of caps to the United States military and Merchant Marine Academy – patented a cap style known as “Pac-Cap” in the 1950s. This style enabled the cap owner to fold the stiffener forward by use of hinges for travel purposes and to allow for immediate and flawless cap appearance when unpacked. Despite the innovation lasting into the 1990s, these caps never made their way to Kings Point.

Interestingly enough, the Kings Point Ships Store throughout the 1940s and 1970s removed all manufacturer’s labels from the caps and substituted their own, making tracking down cap suppliers problematic – luckily some left clues on the inside of sweatbands. In recent years, the Academy has procured men’s caps from Bernard Cap Company and women’s caps from Sam Bonk Uniform Cap Company.

high pressure caps vs. covers

At present, caps worn by the Regiment of Midshipmen are referred to as “high pressure covers.” The etymology of the term has its roots in seamen’s union argot of the late 1930s when the caps were called “high pressure caps.” Quite simply, the term was meant to evoke the crisp and snappy appearance of a “cruise ship line” officer’s cap: the cap cover was flush and the cap itself fit snug and squared-away on the wearer’s head. To the imaginative, these caps resembled the car radiator cap, which was also known as a high pressure cap. The term was a mildly derisive and spoke to the divide between the ship’s unlicensed crew with their rumpled workman’s clothes and the spit-and-polish image of licensed officers aboard liners – in the eyes of the former, the latter did not do “real work” and avoided mingling with the hoi polloi below decks. In some union hiring halls, if an individual came in wearing such a cap, it would be forcibly removed and thrown to the rafters. On the other hand, an acceptable cap for someone to wear would be a cap without a flat wire stiffener – which in maritime parlance is called a “grommet” – with a relaxed, floppy cover. These caps were allegedly worn by individuals less concerned with appearance than with doing their job.

When cadet-midshipmen reported aboard ship for their Sea Year, they often came smartly dressed in their newly-issued uniforms and immaculate caps. More often than not, they sailed on freighters or oilers where their dress was incongruous, to say the least. The unionized, unlicensed crew ribbed them for their appearance and insulted their high-pressure caps. After months at sea, cadets brought the salty term back with them to Kings Point where it was passed from class to class. Over time, Kings Pointers began to use United States Navy terminology for uniform items as the Commandant’s office came to be managed by ex-Navymen. For them, caps were known as “combination covers”; thus, the term became “high pressure cover” and in the process, a biting pejorative was remade into a uniquely Kings Point term.

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kings point cap badges 1939-1946

At its outset, what distinguished Cadet Corps caps from those of other maritime organizations was its cap badge. The first cap badge was an oversized fouled anchor device and its wear is noted in 1939. This cap badge was in use until October 1943 and completely phased out in February 1944, when Cadet Corps exclusively wore a United States Naval Academy midshipman cap device. Asserting its own identity in the post-war years, the Academy adopted the current defaced the United States Naval Academy midshipman cap badge on February 1, 1946. The 1946 cap badge has remained the cap badge design used by the Regiment up until the present day.

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The 1939 cadet cap badge is without a design precedent. Its wear remained a constant throughout the Cadet Corps’ early years up until the Dedication of the United States Merchant Marine Academy on September 30, 1943. The replacement of the 1939 cap badge by the United States Naval Academy midshipman cap badge is puzzling, and the exact date for the latter’s adoption is unknown. However, its replacement occurred at some point between October and November 1943. During the month of October 1943, while the First Class Council was actively tinkering with the idea of War Shipping Administration “Ships for Victory” insignia to be worn on cadet-midshipmen collars, the Cadet Corps was made aware of the issue of Merchant Marine Service Emblems by the Seamen’s Service Awards Committee. It is probable that the aforementioned in concert with Dedication compelled Kings Pointers to align themselves closely with the Naval Service. Since cadet-midshipmen were in the United States Naval Reserve, the United States Naval Academy and USNR midshipman cap badge served to emphasize the fact that Kings Pointers were members of the same tribe.

The stamped metal cap badge of 1943-1944 was undoubtedly issued at the Cadet Basic School San Mateo and worn through early 1944 as images of cadet-midshipmen after their return from Sea Year and reporting at Kings Point attest. The often incongruous appearance of two types of cap badges in period photographs and publications point to a policy of cap badges and devices not undergoing immediate replacement when regulations changed or fashion dictated; instead, the local Ships Store issued incoming sections new devices upon arrival at the Cadet Basic schools or to individuals who wished to purchase the new cap devices – any uniform insignia was purchased by the cadet-midshipman. Thus, if there was a wear-out period, as was the case in the United States Navy, cadet-midshipmen did the same unless so compelled.

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Preceding Richard R. McNulty’s assumption of the post of Academy superintendent by two months, the Cadet Corps issued its first post-war book of regulations, United States Merchant Marine Cadet Corps Regulations and Instructions on February 1, 1946. Part IV “Uniform Regulation for the United States Merchant Marine Cadet Corps” defined the style of a new cap device for the Cadet Corps:

This new cap badge was disbursed in September 1946 just prior to the Academy’s funeral services for Captain Tomb – some months after its appearance in the 1946 Regulations. With this cap badge, there was no wear-out, since it was issued Academy-wide at once. It is fitting that while the Cadet Corps paid tribute to King Points’ first superintendent, the 1946 cap badge, also paid homage to the legacy of President Franklin D. Roosevelt with its inclusion of the Merchant Marine emblem in miniature that he authorized for all Merchant Mariners. This cap badge encapsulates the dual nature of the education a Kings Pointer receives: the training of a licensed merchant marine officer and a military one akin to that of a midshipman at Annapolis. The cap badge also points to when the Cadet Corps came into its own: the Second World War.