CapeLinks Cape Cod Massachusetts
Cape Cod: Articles: Fishing, History -- post an article
Oil Clothes
Before the days of sewing machines, the fisherman’s clothes were made by outfitters. They bought the cloth, cut the pants, the jacket and the barvel (which was a large apron), and laid them out for the women to sew.
When the clothes were sewed, they were covered with two or three coats of linseed oil laid on with a paint brush. Rows of these stiff figures hung singly with the arms extended from fear of combustion in many a dim store loft.
It is known that linseed oil can combust or cause a fire if it is not left to “air out”. Many a new home has been burned down from linseed oil soaked rags that were crumpled up and tossed into a waste basket by some carpenter after treating a wood piece with it.
Of course nowadays a fisherman’s “oil gear” or “oil skins” are made from rubber or vinyl which is highly unlikely to combust.
(2 comments) What do you think about Oil Clothes? Leave a comment
• tell-a-friend • link to this post •
Comments:
I remember oil clothes, can hear an old captain saying, time to hit the deck, or time to haul back, get into your oil gear .many years ago on old side trawlers, from the Gulf of Maine to the Grand Banks
Posted by Capt. Tom Martin from Maine on 11/23/09 at 08:38 PM | #
leave a comment
Related Posts: are tagged with fishing, history
- Pride of Provincetown
- Pilgrim Bill of Fare
- 2009 Great White Shark Season Wrap Up
- Chatham Fisherman Charged with Humpback Whale Crime
- Brrrrrrrr!
<< Cape Cod Borgia | Lecture Day >>
Leave a Comment:
Read More About Cape Cod
Very pleased to read this about oil clothes. When my gr x 3 grandfather was lost at sea in 1875, his widow supported her children by making oil clothes for the fishermen and I wondered what that entailed. Thank-you!