Textiles 59
The sail is 80 ft (24 m) wide at the foot, 55 ft (17 m) in height and weighs
somewhere in the region of half a tonne. It is constructed from bolts of linen
cloth (each roughly two feet wide), running from head to foot, and is reinforced
with similar material running across the width of the sail in bands (Figure 1); the
edge is strengthened with hemp rope. The sailcloth is of a plain weave, i.e.
simply woven with warp and weft yarns interlacing alternately (Figure 2). In
this instance the warp yarns are paired (10.80.4 pairs cm^1 ), running along
the length of the cloth and so aligned top to bottom for the sailcloth and left to
right for the bands. The weft yarns (7.90.9 yarns cm^1 ) run across the cloth.
Figure 1A sketch of the fore topsail of HMS Victory, showing the areas of loss
Figure 2Weave structure of the sailcloth, with paired warp yarns