The official forum of the Royal Navy Volunteer Bands

Co-admin · Site Admin Joined: 05 Nov 2005 Posts: 1798

A plain unstained wooden box (12" x 8" x 6"), part of every seaman's kit in the old days, in which he kept his personal possessions such as photographs, letters, curios, etc. As someone would keep letters and stories in their ditty box, the contents were known as dits. Get your dits out is an invitation to tell a story from your box...

Ditty boxes disappeared from the Navy when adequate kit lockers were provided in ships; prior to those days, a man's kit was permanently stowed in his kit bag, for the stowage of which back-racks were provided on the mess-decks.

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