Hammock documentation.

[coloradoclyde]

I came across what I think is documentation for a hammock...
From the Smithsonian design museum.

Top right image is described as...
" English-style camp bed or hammock"
1771

 

[pargent]

In naval use they have been around since the late 1400s

 

[coloradoclyde]

Yes! I know...However this is the first reference I have seen regarding the 18th century , and used on land, and a gathered end hammock no less...

 

[trent/OH]

You're all set for reenacting the 1770's at the Smithsonian!

Actually, I noticed the top left bed looks a lot like a wall tent, and top center is a Baker tent lookalike.

 

[tenngun]

We at least read about old tars having one at home in the late 19th and early 20th cent. War ships used them but merchant ships were putting bunks in the for'c's'l by the 1820s. They would sure be a spoace saver in a small home for a single guy. How about army officers in a quick moving force that abandoned the wagons, like cornwallis in the 1781 south :idunno:

 

[BillinOregon]

Gives me a back ache just thinking about it.

 

[coloradoclyde]

Some guys lay in them wrong and some hang them wrong.....I see guys on the internet stretch them as tight as a fiddle string....makes for a very uncomfortable lay....

 

[Bear Rider]

Very uncomfortable -- particularly when the suspension line parts because hanging that tight has multiplied the tension on the line past the breaking point.

What a let down! :haha:

 

[Old Creek]

Some guys lay in them wrong and some hang them wrong.....I see guys on the internet stretch them as tight as a fiddle string....makes for a very uncomfortable lay....

exactly!!!

I have been wondering about this. I started sleeping in hammocks about 3 years ago, if you hang it right it beats a cot or the ground all to pieces.

creek

 

[Gene L]

Sea hammocks probably had provisions for stretching them uniformly. But relying on trees in the field is problematical. I have tried them but don't like them. They were the savior to the navy, before the hammock the sailors slept on the decks with rats roaming over them. I believe they were a New World innovation and lasted through at least WW2 in the British Navy.

I didn't like them in SE Asia in the woods because they required a pretty limited choice for trees to string them, they were hard to get out of if fired upon, and they hung at grazing fire level if you got contact at night. Plus they disagreed with my back. No one in the field used hammocks except Viet Namese REMFs.

I don't know how they were used in Colonial America for ground forces, but I'm not confident they were popular for much of the same reasons above. Plus, I think they were cold. And I think because they were elevated and horizontal, they were obvious as an encampment when this wasn't desired.

 

[coloradoclyde]

I too began my hammock experience by laying in some of the most uncomfortable types and it soured my liking for decades....It wasn't until I laid in a Hennessey that my opinion changed and my knowledge deepened.

The Hammock is believed to have originated in Mexico where it spread to central and south America. When it was brought to Europe by both the Spanish and Christopher Columbus it's popularity spread but never became as popular as it was in the Americas.

Camp on river Araguay, Brazil, 1843-1847