Why it is called a pea jacket I should be glad to be informed by any knowing person; and I beg leave accordingly to refer the question to that corner of the United Service Journal reserved for technical queries, a valuable niche in that ably conducted periodical.

A seaman must also have two pairs of blue trousers, two pairs of shoes, six shirts, four pairs of stockings, two Guernsey frocks, made of a sort of worsted stocking-work, without any opening in front; two hats, two black handkerchiefs, and a comforter to wrap round the throat; together with several pairs of flannel drawers and waistcoats; for in hot, as well as in cold climates, and at all times of the year, the men are now encouraged, as much as possible, to wear flannel next the skin.
The above forms the kit of a sailor in a ship stationed in high latitudes.

On the Mediterranean station, or on that of North America, there is such a mixture of severe and mild weather, that a larger stock is necessary than when the ship is employed exclusively in a cold, or in a hot climate.

On the Indian, South American, and West Indian stations, which lie almost entirely between the tropics, woollen clothing gradually disappears, and the men are apt to suffer a good deal on returning to colder regions; it being hardly to be expected that folks of such improvident habits as sailors will be able to take care of articles of dress, for several years together, for which they have no immediate use.
I remember a captain, whose ship had been often exposed to these alternations, amusing his people very much on entering the tropics, by directing them to roll up all their blue clothes, worsted stockings, and so on, in neat bundles, each having the name and number of the person it belonged to written on a wooden tally, and fastened to it.
These being all collected, and packed carefully in well-dried, watertight casks, were stowed away in the hold, and forgotten, till the pinching blasts off Cape Horn made the unpacking of the casks a scene of as great joy as ever attended the opening of a box of finery at a boarding-school gala.
In warm climates, the stock of a man-of-war sailor consists of four duck frocks, which are more like shirts than anything else, with sundry strings, and touches of blue binding about the breast and collar, which is generally lined with blue, and allowed to fall over the shoulders.

It is totally contrary to Jack's habits to have anything tight about his throat; and one of the chief causes of his invincible estrangement from the royal marine corps is their stiff-necked custom of wearing polished leather stocks.