[Illustration: Spinning Combed bundled fibers called “roving” are fed from a can onto the spinning frame. At the spindle they are spun counterclockwise into yarn, which is wound on a bobbin.]
[Illustration: Forming the Strand Bobbins are mounted on the twisting frame. The yarns are threaded through the register plate to equalize tension and tied to a rotating hook on the rolling “jack.” The jack pulls yarns from the bobbins and twists them clockwise into a strand.]
[Illustration: Laying the Rope Three or four strands are tied to a rotating hook on the jack. While clockwise tension is kept on the other ends by rotating hooks, the strands are twisted counterclockwise into rope.]
Budget-minded Naval Commissioners in Washington allowed the commandant to pay just enough to hold on to his workers. He generally matched the rates of private shipyards in the area to keep workers from being lured away. The daily rates thus fell with the coming of cold weather and the slowing of work, since the workers were then in low demand elsewhere. The Navy defended this hard-nosed practice, maintaining that with fewer daylight hours (workers mustered at sunrise and were dismissed at sunset), the yard got less work out of the men. The niggardly pay policies sometimes backfired: in 1821 the low-paid sailmakers left en masse to work at private yards.
More than the skilled craftsmen, the laborers’ jobs depended on the amount of work at the yard, but most of the workforce awaited the coming of cold weather with some anxiety. The yard’s practice was to retain only as many people as it could keep working, and bad weather sharply reduced the volume of work. The completion of a new ship or of a major repair job also meant the letting go of large numbers of workers, at least until the next job. In effect many in the workforce were not given permanent jobs, but only hired on to perform seasonal work, much like house carpenters, or to complete a single project.
Though the situation was normally weighted in favor of the employer, the scales could occasionally tip the other way, especially for skilled workers. In 1825, when the coming of spring coincided with a surge in building brought on by a recent Boston fire, Commandant William Crane was forced to raise wages to compete for skilled workers. He sent his Master Builder Josiah Barker up the coast as far as Portland to recruit mechanics.