Teka England

According to onlookers, PVB Broke went into battle wearing a significantly less flashy outfit than Lawrence. The best existing portrait of Broke only shows him wearing his full dress uniform. However, Peter Padfield recounts the Shannon's entrance into battle by saying “When they were all at quarters watched by their officers who had donned worn old uniforms and their fighting swords for the fray, Broke, who had adorned himself with a top hat as better protection for his head than the uniform cocked hat, went to the break of the quarterdeck and summoned them around him.” Although not explicitly said, this suggests that Broke was also wearing a “worn old uniform,” likely of the undress style. There is also a theory that because he was infamous for being a redhead, Broke knew that his hair would give him away as the Shannon's captain and therefore a target, and chose to wear the tall hat as camouflage.

On March 23, 1812, the Admiralty office had released new standards for naval uniforms, which essentially pointed the wearer to the same rules as were used in 1807:

FULL DRESS: Blue Cloth Coat, with blue Lappels, Cuffs and Collar, Collar to stand up. Three Buttons on Pockets and Cuffs, white lining, white cloth Waistcoat and Breeches; plain Hat.

UNDRESS: Blue Cloth Coat, blue Lappels and round Cuffs, fall down blue Collar; Waistcoat and Breeches of white or blue cloth as may be convenient.”

The main exception in 1812 was for “the full dress to be similar to that now in use, excepting that the lappells and cuffs are in future to be white, laced as at present, with a crown over an anchor on the button. Captains and Commanders are both to wear two epaulettes, of the same pattern as present with only the following distinctions: the epaulettes of captains three years post, to have an addition of a silver crown over a silver anchor.” All the existing imagery of officers in undress uniform have M notch collars with a roll, and very little gold on them aside from the epaulettes and buttons. Examples of the undress uniform also exist in the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England, and show similar construction. 

There is also mention of a sort of jewelry worn by Broke as well: “When, eleven years after his marriage, he fell, fainting and deluged with blood, and when, on being borne aboard the Shannon, the tender hands of his brother officers gently removed his clothes and bared his chest, they found, suspended around his neck, a small blue silk case. It was found to contain a lock of his wife's hair.”