Dutchman

hot diggity dog. Six weeks away. Fridays workshops are shaping up to be pretty good! I should have a rough class list up by next week. I met Saturday nights dinner- yum.

Robbie is on the loose. He got P.O.'d at me this morning and headed out in the long boat with all his worldly posessions, a pile of cookies ship biscuits, peas and oats. It all fit into a ditty bag. Anyhow, I'm not sure where he was headed to but he was muttering something about headed south to visit friends. So keep a weather eye for a yellow and black puddin cap. If anyone can actually lay a hand on him let me know and we'll get him home. Sorry for any inconvenience he may stir.

Abstracts of "An all for further encouraging and regulating the manufacture of British sail-cloth, and for the more effectual securing the duties now payable on foreign sail-cloth imported into this kingdom. All sail-cloth made in Great-Britain shall be manufactured in the manner and according to the directions hereinafter mentioned, viz. every piece or bolt of British sail-cloth, that shall be 24 inches in breadth and thirty-eight yards in length, shall weigh according to the numbers and weights here mentioned; viz. No. 1, 44 pounds each bolt; No. 2, 41; No. 3, 38; No. 4, 35; No. 5, 32; No. 6, 29; No. 7, 24; No. 8, 21; No. 9, 18; and No. 10, 15 pounds each bolt. SEAMS. Sails have a double flat seam, and should be sewed with the best English-made twine of three threads, spun 360 fathoms to the pound, and have from one hundred and eight to one hundred and sixteen stitches in every yard in length. there is also reference to 30 inch wide. but no 20 that i can find in this source, they are in another one though. So i guess that short armed folks made 20", medium folks made 24" and giants made anything over 30". Unfortunately, I'm not finding the chapter that relates to the actual width/strength table that widths are based off, but it seems that the widths may vary on the weight of the canvas and use of the sail. In other words lighter sails might have wider and lighter bolts of material where storm sails are of heavier and narower bolts.

this is a 1750's era description[/i] The sails of fishing-vessels are generally tanned: lightermen, &c. use the following composition to colour and preserve their sails, viz. horse grease and tar, mixed to a proper consistance, and coloured with red or yellow ochre, with which, when heated, the sails are payed over. The following method is also much approved, viz. the sail, being spread on the grass, is made thoroughly wet with sea-water, and then payed over, on both sides, with brown or red ochre mixed with sea-water to the consistence of cream, it is then well rubbed over, on both sides, with linseed oil. The sail may be used within 24 hours after being oiled. The tanning of sails in the royal navy has been tried, but is not approved of.

silas, i think the width has to do with structural integrity and strength ratios. I'm recalling from somewhere- i'll have to go digging- that the length was ok, but the width was what tended to give way under stress from the wind so the seams acted as a stress relief of sorts. If this is indeed correct I have not run across exactly HOW the 20ish inches came to be.

hush robbie- you weren't even there. Was a great time, missed the entire thing going on friday night as we had to get the camp together for Saturday. Saturday was great, we got to blow all the powder we could hope for. Grace and Duncan got to man the Bountys guns and made quite an impression on the crew as it seems they have had some less than favorable encounters with other groups.(edit- not groups at fells point, reenactors at prior venues) infact most of the crew came to the camp to socialize as we were doing night shots with the guns. We slung the girls around and let the Bounty crew fire on their own ship (we loaded). None of them had fired at night or with steel wool, A grand show. They stayed with us till the wee hours. Grand ventures.

well bummer. grace and i will be at fells point. otherwise we'd be along to keep you company.

Tartain, consider the one in the shipyard pinned. I'm going to be a bit busy this weekend but if its ok with you I may rearange and add some things. If anyone else finds any topics too good to be lost let me know and i'll slide them into what Tartain has started. Good idea mate!

hey mate, glad youre home safe.

looking at the map we should be able to. The brick building that is at the head of the pier is supposed to have some recently launched long boats and the others look to be within a few blocks.

thought sunday was a pack up go home day? unless there is something going on that I missed or people really want to leave, thought it might be fun to be a tourist for a few, plus might be a good inro opportunity for CSF :)

well this is what i'm intertested in doing on sunday. USS Constelation, Light Ship Chesapeake and the light house are on my list. Any one else want to come along? These are great opportunities to learn about maritime history right in the events back yard. http://www.historicships.org

hhmmmmm credibility???? one word- COUSIN ROBBIE, yes thats one word.

I'm not really sure- right off hand i'd have to say spirits of some sort as the tar goes through an extraction process and as part of the magic formula we add linseed oil to it. It works wonders for keeping away moths as well. Unfortunately, it is also known to keep my lovely Grace away as well so I must go lightly but she did compromise and found me a fragrance called spiced rum that she likes the smell off. not bad, but not the same.

well that made it to the saved pages list. thats cool stuff. thanks for sharing

well I have the can, but the warning seems to be mostly obscured by a brown sticky substance- go figure. here is what I can read though. Warning: keep out of reach of children. Cl.............. Use in we............... epeated use can sensitize skin. Do not.................flush with.................

how do you determine the length of the end piece. in otherwords, if you start with X feet of untwisted line how many finished feet do you end up with? I know the length of the walk could in theory be indefinite, but whats a good minimum ammount of room to set something like this up?

silas, thanks. now at the far end- is that stationary or is that spinning in the opposite direction. it looks like the cross pieces hold the separate lays apart until they are wound together to make the line?

morgan, thank you for the offer. a tutorial would be grand. As i understand it, the yarns are spun in one direction and at the same time spun together in the opposite direction. i have a visual concept in my mind of the sort of machine needed- but have not seen this to make the pieces fall together. how does the tree or the clover leaf shaped tool come into play?

http://www.storyofrope.org/ropemaking_resources.html

thanks half shell- thats exactly what I was thinking. If we look at the first link you posted there is a group of reenactors doing just that with a machine of sorts, thats what i'd like to put together. i think i have the concept but am interested to see if anyone here has first hand experience with it.

rope making machine. the distance between the two parts of the machine is called the rope walk.

I use bees wax heated in as michael describes to waterproof my fire buckets.

i'd like to add a rope walk to the school of the sailor/ colonial maritime festival in june. I have heard of one being set up at an event- paynetown maybe?? this is out of my area of knowledge, but i'd love to learn. has anyone set one up and operated one? would anyone be willing to make the trip to Deltaville in June to run one?

no worrys mate. i'd rather catch something like that here rather than read your obit or hear you were in the hospital. I have one of michaels costrels thats two- maybe three years old now. I've used it so much that the leather around the neck is wearing down, but the pitch is still holding strong- no repairs needed yet. I've only held water in it due to it potentially being a bear to clean. I'd be leery about puting alcohol in it, i wonder if it would break down?