B A C K   T H E N

Dunton Sail Loft

Boothbay Harbor. The Lewis A. Dunton sail loft, making sails for one of the seven four-masted schooners built at Boothbay between 1918 and 1920. Dunton is sitting third from right. The man at far right uses a sewing machine to make awnings, but here (as at Dunn & Elliott) sails are haridstitched. Some captains of big schooners, in particular, did not trust the strength of machine-sewed sails.

The tightly laid rope in the foreground is a hemp bolt rope. A Bath sailmaker on roping a sail:

When sewing on the bolt ropes ...we sew with twine four times doubled and each stitch is hauled home with [a] “fid.” ... When sewing on these ropes each stitch takes up a small portion of the canvas and the result is that when we reached the end of the sail, on the measuring rule being applied, it is always found that the bolt rope is some inches too short. We then belay the edge of the sail between two stout posts, haul it up taut, and set a couple of boys “dancing” on the rope; they maintain their balance on it by catching hold of ropes suspended from the beams overhead .... Sometimes, and especially in cold weather, this shrinkage will amount to a foot or more. Then all hands are set to work “dancing,” and it may be a matter of half an hour before the rope is stretched to the length desired. – The [Bangor] Industrial Journal, Feb. 14, 1890.

Text by William H. Bunting from A Days Work, Part 1, A Sampler of Historic Maine Photographs, 1860–1920, Part II. Published by Tilbury House Publishers, 12 Starr St., Thomaston, Maine. 800-582-1899.