s a teenager, Henry B. Almy left his recorded that the crew routinely unbent a Newport, Rhode Island, home to sail, repaired it as a group, and sent it back begin his apprenticeship as a sail- aloft during a single warch. 1 maker in New Bedford, Massachusetts. US Navy ships carried sai lmakers into In the 1850s, Almy alternated between the twentieth century. The Sailmaker's shoreside sailmaking and shipping our in Mate raring was established in 1775 and merchant vessels plying the waters betwe- extended in 1797 to petty officers aboard en New Bedford, New York, and the West their newly launched frigates. These first Indies. During the Civi l War, when many US Navy sail makers and sai lmaker's mares sail lofts closed or laid off emp loyees, Almy on rhe frigates United States and Constitujoined a group of sailmakers traveling to tion received comparable wages to the boPhiladelphia to make canvas army rents. atswain. Each frigate had a sai lmaker and Returning to New Bedford after the war, sailmaker's mate on board designated as he re-established himself as a sailmaker, warrant officers. Ashore, the navy replaced opening a sai l loft in partnership with all civilian sai lm akers with naval personObed Hitch. Henry Almy's story is neither nel in 1831. When naval ships no longer remarkable, nor particularly noteworthy; carried sai ls, the sailmaker's position was rather, he represents the typical sailmaker maintained to rake care of hammocks, working in New England during the ni- hatch covers, wind funnels, and any other neteenth century. While some sailmakers canvas work. The Sail maker's Mare's duties built personal fortunes, most, like Almy, were absorbed into the Boatswain's Mare's ventured our on their own, opening mo- duties in 1939. dest businesses after gaining training and Ashore, the marine artisan was respecexperience at an established loft or from ted as possessing valuable ski lls necessary in rime served aboard ship. Almy did both. a port town. W ith ski lled labor in demand The age of sai l came to an impressive in New England ports, these men could climax in the mid- l 800s and then dwin- expect a higher standard of living than dled to a few select trades by 1900. New their counterparts in English towns. Any England sailmakers had enjoyed steady experienced mariner would have known emp loyment; the volume of sails required how to stitch a sail, and many wandered to supply the American fleet during the age ashore finding short-term employment at of sail was incalculable. A frigate the size the local sail loft or on an individual basis of USS Constitution required at least two for a given vessel. Jobs needing more than full su its of sails, with each suit measuring basic stitching and repair, however, requi3/4 of an acre of canvas. By century's end, red substantial training and skill. Underdemand for sails dropped with rhe decline standing plans and measurements, advanin the number of sailing ships putting to ced marlinspike seamanship, and some busea with the transition to steam propulsion siness savvy we re essential to the shoreside and inland transportation. By 1900, only sa ilmaker's success. Afrer sewing machines specialized trades, such as fishing, bulk were adopted in to the industry at the end cargoes, and yachting, sustained the sailing of the 1800s, roping, gro m mers, cringles, ship, albeit in grearly decreased numbers. and splicing sti ll had to be done by hand. As a group, sai lmakers were getting older Individuality was nor encouraged as seveand some struggled to find work. Others ral men might work together to complete changed occupations entirely. a large sai l. The merchant ship's sailmaker was a To identify the typical southern New privileged crewmember, though usually England sailmaker of the nineteenth cenpaid only slightly more than able seamen. tury, I examined every sailmaker listed in He apprenticed under a master sai lmaker the federal censuses of 1850 and 1880 in either ashore or at sea. Nicknamed "Sails," eleven seaports. Through the analysis of he traditionally li ved in steerage with the these data, the ordinary sailmaker came to carpenter. On a ship with a full crew, he life. A number of changes in the demograworked as a "day man" or "idler," stood no phics of the southern New England sai lwatch, and worked at his trade all day. He maker occurred between 1850 and 1880. slept at night unless all hands were called. In 1850, the average sailmaker was 35 years Ar sea, if a ship suffered considerable da- old ; by 1880, that average had increased to mage to her sails, everyone on board who 42-a significant shift in just thirty years. cou ld be spared from other functions was No other srarisrical factors could explain sent to rhe sailmaker. During rhe clipper why this shift occurred, other than that, by ship Sea Serpent's circumnavigation in the rhe late nineteenth century, sailmaking was 1850s, seaman Hugh McCulloch Gregory a dying profession. Ar mid-century, nearly
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half the sailmakers were in their teens and twenties, while fewer than a quarter of 1880 sai lmakers were that young. In this sample, all southern New England sai lmakers we re white men, more than half married with children-with some excep tions: two sailmakers were listed as "mulatto" and two others were single women. Despite the popularity of maritime trades amongst blacks, both slave and freemen-particularly in Philadelphia and the Chesapeal<e, this trend was not in effect in southern New England. The 1839 Boston C ity Directory had no sailmakers listed under "People of Color," and, without exception, every sailmaker surveyed in 1850 was white. Throughout the century, unemployment was practically non-existent for established sailmakers. Proprietors of many sail lofts grew wealthy and rose to be prominent citizens. Charles Mallory of Mystic, John Kingsbury Pirner of New London, New Bedford's Simpson Hart, the sai l loft of Rhoades and Matthews in Boston, and the Ratsey's of Ratsey and Lapthorn fame represented very successful sailma!Gng firms throughout this century. These sailmal<ers were as much busi nessmen as working artisans. Although they paid their workmen real wages, proprietors often rook shares in a vessel in lieu of cash. These investm ents often realized impressive returns. TI1e typical sailmaker in 1850, however, was neither an investor nor a property owner. Sh oreside sai lmakers and their shipboard counterparts shared the same responsibilities in the construction and repair of working sai ls and other canvas work. Many sail loft workers had left the sea and serried ashore; some divided their time between sea and shore. In Maine, sailmaker Alexander Munro C url er explained that most of his business came from small, cargo-carrying vessels that laid up in the winter and sent their sails in for maintenance and repair. During the summer, when business was slow, Curler would go to sea. 2 Hisrorian Gary Nash noted that the factors affecting a sail maker's success were no different from any other trade-as were the reasons a sailmaker chose hi s trade in the first place. An artisan's prosperity depended upon "craft ski ll, business acumen, health, luck, and choice of marriage partner. ... Nonetheless, you ng men tended to base their choice of career far more on those of their fathe rs-o r uncles, older brothers, or cousi ns-than on a rational calculation of future material rewards." 3 Sailrnakers enjoyed high employment rares, bur setting up business was another
SEA HISTORY 109, WrNTER 2004-2005