Note 23 — Chapter I · MY BOYHOOD, AND ENTRANCE INTO THE NAVY.

Lord Dundonald about this time entered upon a series of experiments which, as usual, were productive of more benefit to his country than himself, viz. an improved mode of preparing hemp and flax for the manufacture of sailcloth. For this he subsequently took out a patent, and submitted his process, together with samples of the manufacture, to the Admiralty. So sensible was the Board of the advantages of the plan, that it was subsequently stipulated in every contract that hemp should be steeped and boiled in the way recommended in his lordship’s patent. Since that period, the use of sailcloth so manufactured has become general. Formerly, it was sold by weight, the worthless material of which it was composed being saturated with a composition of flour and whitening, so that the first shower of rain on a new sail completely white washed the decks. Of so flimsy a nature were the sails when this composition was washed out, that I have taken an observation of the sun through the foretopsail, and brought it to a horizon through the foresail.