Why did sailors wear bell bottom trousers

Question

how did it originate, and was there a reason behind it?

Answer 1

Because most ships are very tall and in the event of them having to abandon ship they would have to jump over the side the bell bottoms would open up like parachutes and slow their fall  

Answer 2

Trouser bottoms got wet and clung to legs. Therefore bell bottoms whicjh prevent that

Answer 3

Sailors of the Royal Navy still wear bell bottom trousers.  The reason for the bell bottoms is to make rolling them up much easier than a pair of straight legged trousers.

You can find out more about the Royal Navy and meet the men and women of the Senior Service at the site below.

http://jackspeak.royalnavy.mod.uk/tag/yo...

How to stay fit on board one of HM Ships in the days of sail.  The Hornpipe. . .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkzmFzzJ8...

Now for the real hard stuff

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rxz4aPoud...

Answer 4

Further to Allenb's answer. In the 1960's as a schoolboy, the Amateur Swimming Association ran a series of courses in personal survival in which we were taught to make life preservers from trousers, shirts, and even boiler suits by knotting the legs or sleeves. However this reasoning is about 200 years too late to account for sailor's bell bottoms.

Answer 5

While many reasons to explain sailors' wearing of this style have been cited over the years, most theories have little credibility because reliable documentation is lacking. In the 1960s, at least, U.S. naval recruits were taught to use their bellbottoms as life preservers by slipping them off, then tying the legs shut and capturing air in them.

Answer 6

According to Marine Corps Colonel Robert Rankin in his book "Uniforms of the Sea Services",  bell-bottom trousers were "merely a design used by Navy tailors in the 1800s to set Navy attire apart from civilian styles prior to introduction of actual uniform regulations. These tailors unknowingly provided a great service with this design, which mariners claim was invented to keep the trousers' legs dry after they were rolled up above the knees during shipboard duties.

"A great safety element emerged when it was discovered a water-soaked sailor who happened to find himself no longer aboard could easily remove the 20 to 30 pounds of saturated wool without removing his now-standard shoes, which he would desperately need to protect his feet if he avoided becoming shark bait and made landfall."

Answer 7

I don't know but they sure do look s**y

Answer 8

They were so the leg could be rolled up easy to swab the decks and not get them wet.