The Naval Service (Volume 1)

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1836. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... RULES AND INSTRUCTIONS FOR SAIL-MAKING. The following directions, touching the cutting, goring, sewing, seaming and roping of sails have been cautiously culled from the best authorities: -- CUTTING OUT SAILS. Sails are cut out cloth by cloth, the width being governed by the length of the yard, gaff, boom, or stay; the depth by the height of the mast. The width and depth being given, find the number of cloths the width requires, allowing for seams, tabling on the leeches, and slack cloth; and in depth, allow for tabling on the head and foot. Sails cut square on the head and foot, with gores only on the leeches, as some top-sails are, the cloths on the head between the leeches are cut square to the depth; and the gores on the leeches are found by dividing the depth of the sail by the number of cloths gored, which gives the length of each gore. The gore is set down from a square with the opposite selvage, and the canvas being cut diagonally, the longest gored side of one cloth makes the shortest side of the next; consequently, the first gore being known, the rest are cut by it. For the length of gores corresponding to the depth on the selvage, observe the following table. Table shewing the length of any gore by its depth, from one inch to six feet in depth, on the selvage of canvas twenty-four inches wide. In The Leeches Of Topsails Cut Hollow, * the upper gores are longer than the lower ones; and in sails cut with a roach leech, the lower gores are longer than the upper ones. This must be regulated by judgment, and care taken that the whole of the gores do not exceed the depth of the leech. By drawing on paper the gored side of the sail, and delineating the breadth of every cloth by a convenient scale of equal parts of an inch to a foot, the length of every gore may.