Linseed, Flax and the Navy...

Wednesday 25th January 2012

At first glance it may be hard to see how this plant whose Latin name means 'most useful' could have anything to do with seafaring. Scratch below the surface and you will find quite a few connections.

Flax is a plant grown for its fibre it is very strong, durable but also soft and flexible. It makes double damask table cloths so it is very fine but it also makes sails.

It is said that Nelson used sails made near Bridport in the village of Coker and paid 2/3pence more per square yard than was the going rate because they had developed a better way of retting the fibre therefore making them stronger (Retting is soaking the plant to loosen the outside woody part to get at the fibres).

Ropes were also made from the flax fibre and a sailing ship has plenty of them. There is a company still in Bridport in the rope and net making business but unfortunately it is all plastic today.

It is still possible to discern from the old flax workers cottages how rope walks were incorporated into the town plan. In the old days fishermen used net made of flax fibre and when they were lost the nets would just biodegrade. Today's man made fibres do not degrade and become smaller and smaller by the sea action eventually the fish eat them and presumably then do we. I don't know about you but I do not like plastic in my diet. Here's an idea, lets go back to home grown biodegradable nets and stop throwing plastic into the sea.

Now, linseed, well, it has been eaten for thousands of years it is an oilseed containing omega three, six and nine. Omega 3 and six are essential fats that the body does not make and must be in the diet, omega 9 like olive oil the body can make so it is not essential. As ancient people managed to press the oil from the seed they discovered it could be used in other ways to preserve wood and to make paint. When an old master piece has a yellow tinge it is from the lovely linseed oil. I am pretty sure that linseed oil played a big role in keeping the timber of the old ships from splitting and rotting.

Here's a question for you. The Royal Army Medical Corps were nicknamed The Linseed Lancers. Does anyone know if the naval medical corps had a similar nickname. Interestingly the very first page of the 1944 RAMC training manual talks about the cells of the human body and how important it is for them to receive the oxygen they need to do their work and to be able to get rid of waste. It also has a recipe for making linseed poultices.

The link here is made by a wonderful German doctor, Johanna Budwig. She was among the first to research essential fats and the role they play in the making of the cells each membranes is made of a balance of fats. Johanna will also tell you how oil helps to oxygenate the blood.

Imagine the heart ready to do the job and the lungs waiting to supply the oxygen, the heart is thinking what sort of oil I have to help with this process, it is hoping for some nice unsaturated fats to speed the process. If on the other hand the body has adulterated oils and fats the process is slowed and bad residue is dumped on the artery walls.

The advice is, never roast with any oil at high temperature, it destroys the vital oxygen transferring abilities. So how to roast those potatoes or parsnips? Well, saturated fat is the answer. This kind of fat is unharmed by heat whereas oils are made more like plastic. Use goose/duck dripping, ghee or lard but not too much if you are vegetarian try coconut oil it's a saturated fat too.

Johanna went on to use linseed oil in her protocol to help cure many diseases including cancer. If oil can cure, it seems to me that the cause of many of our ills are the result of far too much junk oil and adulterated fats in our food chain.

I am just about to set up an online museum with my many linseed and flax artefacts. I hope you have enjoyed this little sail through the forgotten world of linseed and flax. If you have any memories to share I would love to hear from you.

Durwin Banks
High Barn Oils

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