HELP:Baggywrinkle Origins

[Stynky Tudor]

Since Captain Sinbad of the Meka II passed away, his grandson, Christian Torkington is in the process of taking over ship maintenance and duties. Christian recently asked me to help with making new "baggywrinkles" for the ship and that got me thinking...

 

Wikipedia describes baggywrinkles as "a soft covering for cables (or any other obstructions) to reduce sail chafe", but is thin on it's name origins and history. "The Tides of History" website, links the word "baggywrinkle" to various others, "bagawringle, bangawrinkle, baggywringle, bag-o’-wrinkle" and breaks the origins down to, "One conjecture is that baggy is what it says. Wringle is from the Old English word for wrap or twist, and wrinkle is a corruption of the term.", siting their use in early 1800. 

 

Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baggywrinkle

Tides of History

https://thetidesofhistory.com/2025/08/27/sailor-speak-of-the-week-baggywrinkle/

 

Now knowing that the problem of ropes chafing sails had to have plagued sailors of seafaring societies for at least a millennia and that the fix is a simple technology, it's hard for me accept that this problem wasn't addressed or remedied until 1800. The one book I have on 1600-1720 ship rigging, doesn't seem to have anything to say on the subject.

 

If anyone has information on this topic, please share.

 

Here's a couple images of the baggywrinkle work I'm doing.

 

 

 

[michaelsbagley]

I don't know about the provenance of it's use, but the (now defunct) Columbus Santa Maaria reproduction had bagglewrinkle used in many parts....

So not exactly "evidence", but a generally well sourced historical reproduction of a 15th century ship used it.

[Stynky Tudor]

6 hours ago, michaelsbagley said:

I don't know about the provenance of it's use, but the (now defunct) Columbus Santa Maaria reproduction had bagglewrinkle used in many parts....

 

Thanks, that's good to know! But since they're defunct, I imagine that there really isn't anyone to reach out to.

 

Hmm, I wonder if the replica ships at Jamestown use baggywrinkles... Looks like I'll have to contact the museum/make a pilgrimage.

[Stynky Tudor]

I was in Pennsylvania recently, hanging out with @Madam Grace -- it turns out that she's also working on baggywrinkles for the Meka II.

 

We talked about the trouble I'm having finding a historical documentation/reference for them and she mentioned that she believed seeing remnants of one recovered from the wreck of the Whydah. A quick internet search hasn't turned anything up yet. I would assume that there's a PDF list of artifacts out there somewhere.

[madPete]

All the photos from the Whydah find that used to be online have disappeared. I had the same issue on the Whydah cartridge box. 

You could probably contact the Whydah Museum...

[Scoggs]

Goodmorrow  me mates the final report is sill available at   https://archive.org/details/finalreportofarc00mari

This is the same link provided by Mad Mike in 2023, there are many links most of which is code reminds me of DOS days, I have not explored all of the links though.

A shortcut to just the list is https://dn721505.ca.archive.org/0/items/finalreportofarc00mari/finalreportofarc00mari.pdf

Itis a PDF and downloadable therefore searchable. Hopefully this is of some help. 

 

[Stynky Tudor]

23 hours ago, Scoggs said:

Goodmorrow  me mates the final report is sill available at   https://archive.org/details/finalreportofarc00mari

This is the same link provided by Mad Mike in 2023, there are many links most of which is code reminds me of DOS days, I have not explored all of the links though.

A shortcut to just the list is https://dn721505.ca.archive.org/0/items/finalreportofarc00mari/finalreportofarc00mari.pdf

Itis a PDF and downloadable therefore searchable. Hopefully this is of some help. 

 

AWESOME @Scoggs,Thank you!

 

I'm in the middle of juggling several things, but the documents have been downloaded, thank you again.

[Scoggs]

I am heartily glad to be of service.