A very interesting couple of hours at the Cape Ann Museum this morning taught me a lot about this peninsula I have come to love in a week's time. I will be sad to leave tomorrow.
We were not permitted to take photos in the museum, but I did jot down a few fascinating facts on sailmaking. In the heyday of sail, sails were stitched by hand. Sailmakers worked nine hour days, six days a week. Canvas lengths 22 inches wide were assembled in a sailmaking loft by skilled stitchers. The best of the stitchers, using linen thread, could sew 15-18 yards an hour, at four stitches per inch. I am humbled.