I’ve seen photographs of WWI-era seamen being barefoot both while working on deck and in more ceremonial circumstances. I’m wondering if there’s any sort of story/reasoning behind this because it strikes me as odd that in one particular photo I found there was a line of Sailors being inspected and not one of them was wearing shoes while standing at attention
Being barefoot on old wooden ships awarded more grip than the standard leather soled shoes. Modern rubber soles have increased the grip of our shoes tremendously on wooden planking and most surfaces.
The Royal Navy and in fact many navies up until WWII still put wooden planking on the deck of their ships (notably the aircraft carriers had wooden flight decks), that was the tradition if any that kept sailors barefooted.