A tartan for the Merchant Marine Service

[Antipodean Celt]

Friends, I fear this has turned into a rather long post with considerable meanderings and digressions that may amuse or annoy depending upon one’s disposition. So fair warning, do not proceed further unless you have a few spare minutes, are seated comfortably (preferably in a leather lounge chair) and have a wee dram to hand to ward off the chill and the possible boredom that may set in before reaching the end.
So, disclaimer behind us, I am seeking some tartan design advice. I appreciate others have trodden this path before with mixed results, so all I can ask for is the indulgence and patience that is a hallmark of the patrons of this site.
First, a story. I am one of the clanless diaspora, and so do not need to agonise over which clan tartan to wear; I have none. So I look to the district tartans (Australia, hence the avatar) and the organisation-type tartans for my kilts. There is certainly a plethora of tartan designs to choose from, and one might be forgiven for wondering why a new one is needed.
A fair question. Myanswer is that I am a seafarer, presently working in the merchant service but also an active navy reservist. I fully expected to find a number of different tartans to choose from that might be worn to reflect my profession. I found Edzell (USN) and Royal Navy (International Tartans) easily enough. They are both attractive in their own way and are readily available, but I have no connection with either service and they just don’t ‘speak’ to me.
As far as I can tell, there is no tartan yet designed to reflect the merchant service of any nation. I find that surprising for a number of reasons. If I am wrong, I would appreciate being pointed to any such tartan. I find it surprising that there is no merchant marine tartan mainly because the connection between Scots and the British Merchant Service is very strong. A huge proportion of the British merchant fleet began its life on the Clyde. The Scots are also famous (or notorious) as seagoing marine engineers and their sacrifice through both world wars was enormous. The stereotypical image of the Scottish marine engineer: brilliant, hard-working, hard-drinking, hard swearing and with an accent hard to understand; has a firm foundation in fact. I just had the pleasure of sailing with a Glaswegian Chief Engineer, and whilst the drinking is no longer permitted at sea in the modern world, I am happy to report the other characteristics are still firmly in place.
[I mean no offence by generalising in this way. I am quite sure there are tea-total Scottish Engineers who couldn’t make a maiden aunt blush who are just as brilliant and hard working. I just haven’t met any yet...]
In fact, the “Scotty” character in Star Trek is based on this stereotype, and nerds everywhere (I count myself proudly a nerd) can be heard using such gems as “the engines can nae stand it Cap’n” and so on in absurdly bad scottish accents. But I digress.
So in the absence of a tartan for the merchant service, I thought I was just the man for the job. I read somewhere recently that it takes about 10,000 hours to achieve mastery of a skill (was it in Malcolm Gladwell’s last book?). I agree with the idea completely, but I didn’t let the small detail of having absolutely no experience in designing tartan, or even the most rudimentary instruction, deter me. No Sir, I was going to have a go.
Design Philosophy
I wanted the tartan to reflect seafaring, so blue is the base colour, both for the sea and the sky. I also wanted to represent the idea of sacrifice and courage, and crimson is the obvious choice. The battle of the Atlantic claimed the lives of tens of thousands of merchant mariners. It is a sad fact that until about 1942, the losses of the British Merchant Marine exceeded the losses of all the three armed services put together. But I digress again.
I also wanted a connection to my part of the world, and the southern cross is my choice. It is as important to mariners in the southern hemisphere as Polaris is to the mariner in the north. The Southern Cross might be represented by 2 thin white lines on a black or dark grey background intersecting to form the 4 star cross.
Finally, I wanted to convey the idea of a ship, and thought the simplest way to do that would be to represent the sidelights that are so important for collision avoidance – thin red and green stripes on a dark background.
So, happy with my design philosophy, where to start with making an attractive design? I had read somewhere on this forum that a good place to start was to base a design on an existing one. So off to Scotweb’s excellent online designer I go with the idea of making a ‘blue’ Ulster variant. After a few hours of mucking about, I came up with this:



Southern Cross (Ulster)

Not bad for a beginner I thought to myself (false modesty is apparently not one of my faults). I can do this. But it isn’t very original and the design is fairly simple by modern standards; it is 400 years old after all. How about venturing into deeper waters (so to speak)?
So I waded further in, and about 100 or more hours of my life disappeared into tiny coloured lines on the computer screen. My wife started getting worried and my dog gave up waiting for a walk. I was drowning in a sea of tartan. The pity of itis that I have about 50 different designs that have one thing in common; they are all awful. I won’t inflict any of those designs upon you.
I took a break for a while, then found myself thinking one day about a dark blue foundation with very delicate white lines for the starlight cross, and a different shade of blue, but close to the dark one so as to produce a subdued look. I came up with this:


Southern Cross (Subdued)
The Gold line was ‘sunshine’ in the middle of the day and the dark lines were reminiscent of ship’s tracks on a radar or chart. Well, that is how I thought of it anyway. I don’t know what you all think, but it still didn’t feel quite right, and it was missing the red stripe for sacrifice, courage and the perils of the sea.
So back to the tartan drawing board and this came out:


Southern Cross (new).
I know, awful isn’t it. But I thought maybe there was something to work with here. What if I added another shade of blue again, then maybe the black becomes grey, and the lighter blue breaks up the grey a bit, and then you might get something like this:

Southern Cross (Cross).
Well, that isn’t too bad I think to myself. But I am not 100% sure about it. Will it work as a fabric? What would it look like as a kilt? What about pleating problems? Are the proportions OK? After all, I am still about 9850 hours short of mastery of the subject and frankly, I have no idea.
So, throwing over to you my wiser and more experienced kilted colleagues. Am I headed in the right direction here? What is the next step do you think? Talk to a professional designer perhaps? Hold a competition maybe? (it seemed to work well for the Isle of Skye – it is beautiful!!)
All ideas welcome.

[Grae]

Southern Cross subdued is my choice of these designs by far. Would
be good to hear from a kilt maker to say how well it would pleat up they may want a threadcount. Great name by the way with that it could be a contender for THE Australian tartan!

[Antipodean Celt]

Thanks Grae. I am hoping that I will have something beautiful my the end of this process that many Australians might like and would want to wear. I am very wary however of designing something that lays any kind of claim as the Australian district tartan. There is already enough controversy on that score without me adding any fuel.

I am hoping to have somebody endorse it for the use of antipodean mariners of all persuasions; from the yachtsman to the fisherman to the professional mariner to the navy. I am just not quite sure if that is too broad a church for any one body to endorse it. The Maritime Safety Regulator maybe?

Anyhow, thanks for your thoughts.

[AFS1970]

To my eye, the first one (Ulster) is the most attractive, with the second (Subdued) being second. I don't see the second as all that subdued compared to the first however. I also like the mix of blue and grey in the first one as that reminds my of a ship on the sea.

Until I enlarged the pictures, I did not notice the subtle red and green stripes, now that I know they are there I see them when I look at the Ulster, but on the subdued I the green gets lost and only the red sticks out. Perhaps moving them from along side the blue into the center of the grey area might make them a bit more prominent. Much like the white lines jump out against the darker blue, the red and green might be more visible against the grey.

One question, is this tartan based on any other tartan (thread count, ect) or is it entirely your own? If it is entirely your own that you have much more freedom to move stuff about. If you are trying to maintain some similarity to another tartan for historical purpose than you have less freedom. I wouldn't want my suggestions to ruin a theme or meaning of your project.

[JohntheBiker]

Have to say that my first preference is the Southern Cross (Ulster). It is a good looking tartan, not too fussy and evocative of the sea and seafaring - four generations of naval reservists.

[Antipodean Celt]

To my eye, the first one (Ulster) is the most attractive, with the second (Subdued) being second. I don't see the second as all that subdued compared to the first however. I also like the mix of blue and grey in the first one as that reminds my of a ship on the sea.

Until I enlarged the pictures, I did not notice the subtle red and green stripes, now that I know they are there I see them when I look at the Ulster, but on the subdued I the green gets lost and only the red sticks out. Perhaps moving them from along side the blue into the center of the grey area might make them a bit more prominent. Much like the white lines jump out against the darker blue, the red and green might be more visible against the grey.

One question, is this tartan based on any other tartan (thread count, ect) or is it entirely your own? If it is entirely your own that you have much more freedom to move stuff about. If you are trying to maintain some similarity to another tartan for historical purpose than you have less freedom. I wouldn't want my suggestions to ruin a theme or meaning of your project.

Thanks AFS. Helpful thoughts. I wanted the sidelights to be subtle, just as it is sometimes difficult to see sidelights at sea. But I take your point about the green being lost in the subdued version. I will take it into account. I think I had it in my head that the darker blue was 'night' versus the lighter blue as 'day', but the design has to work as a fabric, not just a theoretical concept.

The work is entirely my own except for the Ulster version, which is just a colour change from Ulster Red. I chose Ulster Red to begin with because it will be my second kilt (it was meant to be my first, but Scotweb have taken nearly 6 months now and still waiting. Glad I wasn't holding my breath), and also because Belfast was also an important shipbuilding and maritime centre.

So I do have artistic freedom in that sense, but as I have found out, too much freedom can sometimes be a hindrance rather than a help. I might even think about a colour change on the Australia tartan, which itself is based on the MacQuarrie sett to commemorate Governor MacQuarrie, sometimes referred to as the father of Australia.

So many choices!

[Antipodean Celt]

Have to say that my first preference is the Southern Cross (Ulster). It is a good looking tartan, not too fussy and evocative of the sea and seafaring - four generations of naval reservists.

Thanks John. Yes, good seamanship is about keeping it simple and low fuss. That is a good thought to keep in mind.

[Antipodean Celt]

So keeping it simple, here is a quick colour change on 'Australia' tartan. I have doubled the white line to give the southern cross effect and added a red line for sacrifice.

The black 'grid' lines stay the same.

[rmccool]

I'm partial to the Southern Cross (Ulster). The grey is reminiscent of the gray paint often used on steel ships and it also brings to mind a North Atlantic fog.

[AFS1970]

The Australia version seems a bit busy to me, mainly due to all the thin stripes. I also find the grey to be much more dominant for the same reason. Since the blue is meant to represent water and sky, it should be somewhat more than accent stripes. I don't see the green in this new version, did you nix the running lights idea?