Linen Sails

In the years 1831-1838 the Swedish Royal Navy made experiments with sail cloth made of flax instead of the customary hemp. It was found that although the linen sails were easier to handle in wet weather, they wore out in half the time compared to hemp sails. After two expeditions of together 12 months two sails made of flax for the frigate af Chapman had to be discarded.

For another expedition to the Mediterranean in 1837, the frigate Josephine was equipped with a fore topsail made of linen and a main topsail made of hemp. When the linen sail was found to be worn out and had to be shifted, the main topsail was found to be only half worn. It is possible that the strength of the flax sail cloth was reduced by being bleached by the sun.

While these tests cannot be compared to modern laboratory tests it is the earliast reference to testing of sailcloth that I have come across.

A transcription of the report of the experiments with linen and hemp sails is available:

Om Hamp- eller Lin-duks företräde till Segel from Tidskrift i Sjöväsendet, Vol. 4, 1839.

Part I

Part II

Updated 1996-02-21 by Lars Bruzelius

Sjöhistoriska Samfundet | The Maritime History Virtual Archives.