Green’s Dictionary of Slang

dunnage n.

[naut. use dunnage, material such as brushwood or mats, used to protect valuable or easily broken cargo; ult. Low Ger. dün, thin, and dünne Twige, brushwood]

1. baggage, esp. carried by a tramp or a sailor.

J.F. Cooper Sea Lions Ch. v n.p.: Not only was the chest more than half empty, but the articles it did contain were of the coarsest materials [...] ‘What is to be done with all this dunnage, deacon?’ [F&H].
[UK]Hotten Sl. Dict.
[US]Jasper Wkly Courier (IN) 1 Oct. 6/2: When I woke out of that drunk I found that the ship [...] had carried all my dunnage with her.
[Aus]Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 3: Dunnage - Baggage, clothes.
[Aus]J.S. Borlase Blue Cap, the Bushranger 96/1: Swell dunnage he had brought with him from California.
[UK]Western Dly Press 6 Feb. 3/2: At present we are getting [...] 22 degrees of frost; so we have commenced to haul over our dunnage bags and winter clothes.
[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 13 Dec. 21/2: She hadn’t brought much dunnage aboard with her, barring a concertina and a few hairpins and things tied up in a handkerchief.
[Aus]E.S. Sorenson Quinton’s Rouseabout and other Stories 92: Then Noel picked up his dunnage an’ left, an’ we never saw any more of him from that day to this.
[UK]Observer (N.Z.) 27 Nov. 51/3: The arrival of his dunnage too, at the local pub caused the eyes of old Smirks, the licensee, to bulge.
[UK]N&Q 12 Ser. IX 384: Dunnage-Bag. Canvas bag to carry clothing.
[US]P.A. Rollins Cowboy 153: If he had further personal belongings – and these the West called his ‘plunder,’ as the East termed them ‘dunnage’ or ‘duffle’.
[Scot]Eve. Teleg. (Dundee) 24 Mar. 9/4: At Cape Town [...] he cleared all his dunnage in time to catch the boat train for the north.

2. clothes.

[UK]Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.
[UK]Hotten Sl. Dict.
[UK]N&Q 12 Ser. IX 384: Dunnage. Clothing.