U S Navy Mustard and Pepper Bottles

Hi,
I enlist anyone's help with the elusive US Navy Mustard and Pepper bottles.... Picture of example that was a water recovery from Beaufort, NC in the 1970's... Don't know if any of you guys were around Beaufort in the late 70's, but the town of Beaufort revitalized waterfront in the 1970s, and built a wooden boardwalk by the water's edge. I was 11 or 12 at the time, and my family had a beach house at Emerald Isle, which we would visit every summer. One late afternoon after eating Seafood with my family at "Tony's" Sanitary Fish Market in Morehead City, my father drove across the bridge to Beaufort and down to the waterfront. Upon arriving, the whole block by the water was just a 20' mound od mud, with people crawling all over it.... I was fascinated by what the people were doing, recovering old bottles that came off the bottom of Beaufort Harbor, which had been a harbor since the 1700's. I begged my father to let me go, and he finally allowed myself, my sister and brother to dig on that mound for about 30 minutes. When my father said it was time to go, I threw a fit (I WAS HOOKED), he promised to bring me back the next day. I was not leaving, but my father's discipline quickly persuaded me to get back in the car with my finds. I threw a fit all the way home. Well the next day, my punishment was staying home while my brother, sister, and dad went to Beaufort. I think I cried all day. A missed opportunity, that I never forgave him for. Months later he took me too the site, but the mound was gone, and locals said it had been removed to the landfill. I searched the waterfront to find any remnants of bottles from my big mound, but nothing remained. My father saw my disappointment as he took me to the antique shops on the waterfront. I saw many of the bottle recoveries locals had made. In one of those shops my father purchased this Navy Mustard that came from that Big Mound of Mud in Beaufort, NC. This bottle put a band aid on my hurts that day, but I'll always wonder what I could have found in that Big Mound on the Beaufort waterfront in the late 70's. Has been almost 35 years since, but I'll Never forget those vivid memories.

My question......Does anyone have any historical information on these Mustard and Pepper bottles??? I have seen one or two comments stating US Navy was the brand?? That would seem highly unlikely as it would minimize it's marketability. Somehow US Navy would not be a draw to market Mustard or Pepper.
I would think it would be regulation use. It seems most recoveries are water or where there was a Naval presence. Does anyone have any hard data?

Also I see many forums on reproductions, it seems so many are wary, but I haven't seen a reproduction that even looks remotely close.
Does anyone have information of the manufacturer? Manufacturing process?

Any good articles you can point me to on the subject? Thanks, have a great day.
Chris Carroll
BA History NCWC
US Marine Veteran
nchistory@hotmail.com
csnchistory@gmail.com

Bottom ViewChris Carrpll

Hey Chris, Welcome to the new A-BN. The mustard and the Pepper sauce were regulation issue, I believe. You've asked these same questions in a number of places and, I'm sure the answers will catch up to you soon. "A variety of mess bottles were found, including a Lea and Perrin's Worcestershire Sauce bottle, and condiment bottles marked US Navy on one side and PEPPER and MUSTARD on the other. The glassware design was unique and had been long forgotten before they were re-discovered on the USS Cairo. Amazingly, one bottle of pepper sauce proved to be edible after 100 years in the Yazoo mud!" http://www.nps.gov/vick/historyculture/meals.htm "Above are two photographs of an 8" long bottle used to hold pepper sauce by sailors during the Civil War. One side has the raised word PEPPER and on the opposite side U.S. NAVY. There was also a similar bottle with MUSTARD on one side instead of pepper.

It is unclear whether each crewmember had their own bottle of pepper sauce or whether it was part of the general galley or mess decks and shared by all. Also, this bottle did not contain the same type of dry pepper we are used to today, it was a pepper sauce. The bottle stopper was made out of cork. This is an original bottle and was used during the Civil War and found in Georgia." http://www.thepirateslair.com/us-navy-china-history.html

Hey Chris- I found one of the "US Navy Peppers" in the Cape Fear river also. Wilmington has been a port for 300 yrs so a lot of varied stuff. I worked on a project on the USS Monitor off Cape Hatteras for a bout five years. We found about 20-30 of the "Mustards"BTW: I'm from the Beaufort area myself.Jay