Mending Movement: Sail Repair in the Early Maritime Atlantic

In the age of sail, the efficient movement of people and goods around the early maritime Atlantic world relied on the strength of woven fabric and the means to repair it successfully. Sails underwent extensive wear and required regular maintenance and repair work completed by sailors onboard ships while at sea or by sailmakers while in ports. By focusing on ship sails as a technology of maritime movement, sailcloth repair offers insights into the value of repair practices within maritime businesses. Using extant material culture and archival documents from New England’s many maritime collections, this presentation traces the history of sail repair inside sailmakers’ lofts, on the decks of ships, and within marine insurance policies.

Emily Whitted is a PhD candidate in History at the University of Massachusetts Amherst whose work focuses on early American history, material culture, and public history. Her dissertation project, “Darned, Patched, and Mended: Repairing Textiles in Early America,” examines early American textile repair work as an integral, everyday practice completed with needles and thread to maintain fabric’s life cycles within homes, ships, and military camps. She also holds a M.A. in American Material Culture from the Winterthur Program at the University of Delaware.

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