When the U.S. Navy turned to Tuscarora Mills of Bedford, Pennsylvania, to assist outfit the crew of the historic USS Structure with dungarees for a brand new set of uniforms, it did greater than honor the ship’s legacy. It quietly marked the Navy’s first undertaking involving hemp textiles because the 2018 Farm Invoice re-legalized hemp cultivation in the USA—reconnecting America’s army with a fiber that after outlined its seafaring legacy.
“Hemp and flax served the world’s seafaring textile wants for eons for a purpose,” stated Dave Prepare dinner, co-founder at Tuscarora. “They’ve at all times delivered worth, longevity, and efficiency on the water and in port.”
The connection started when Laurra Winters, Director of the Navy Clothes, Textile and Analysis Heart in Natick, Massachusetts, approached Tuscarora Mills about sourcing traditionally correct textiles for the 200-year-old warship.
Tuscarora’s work with hemp and flax materials opened the door to a dialog that finally led to a name from Mathew Welsh, a contractor working with the U.S. Division of Protection (DOD), to recreate the standard sailor pants for the Structure’s crew, in response to Prepare dinner.
For Prepare dinner, the request match completely. The Tuscarora mill is understood for weaving heritage materials for historic houses and museums, from George Washington’s Mt. Vernon to Abraham Lincoln’s summer time cottage, and for producing costumes and textiles for movies like Chilly Mountain. The corporate additionally produced the crimson, white and blue wool bunting used within the bicentennial copy of the Fort McHenry Star-Spangled Banner.
Historic weave
To satisfy the Navy’s necessities, Tuscarora wove a material that echoed the Structure’s early Nineteenth-century outfitting. Hemp and flax have been the usual fibers of that period—used for uniforms, rigging, sails, and even chinking between the planks.
Tuscarora focuses on 100% long-line hemp fiber for sturdiness, breathability, and historic authenticity, blended with natural cotton grown in Texas and spun in North Carolina for added consolation and value steadiness.
The material was woven on Tuscarora’s iconic Draper shuttle looms, machines manufactured in Hopedale, Massachusetts, that after served as workhorses of American textile manufacturing.
“Their conventional selvedge and dense weaving skills made them best for this undertaking,” Prepare dinner defined. “And the very fact they have been made in Massachusetts felt becoming for uniforms destined for a ship in-built Boston.”
Genuine, strategic
The authenticity of the pants went past the weave. Earlier makes an attempt to supply materials for Structure uniforms had relied on supplies from China. Tuscarora pushed as a substitute to make use of European spun hemp yarn from Italian producer Linificio, and home natural cotton woven in Pennsylvania, an strategy way more aligned with the spirit of the ship and its legacy.
That element additionally underscored a deeper level: the strategic worth of re-establishing home bast fiber provide chains.
“Pure fibers like hemp and flax provide actual alternate options to plastic materials lined in PFAS ‘without end chemistry’ that the DOD relies upon upon at this time,” Prepare dinner stated. “If hemp labored so properly prior to now, what’s stopping us from utilizing it at this time to outfit the trendy warrior?”
Classes from the previous
The Navy contract was small by industrial requirements, however Prepare dinner believes its significance is much larger. The undertaking highlighted how bast fibers can ship high-performance textiles which can be sturdy, breathable, and secure—whereas supporting native provide chains.
“This introduced into focus the alternatives for incorporating 100% long-line hemp yarn and materials into the nationwide safety dialogue,” Prepare dinner stated. “Reimagining the home bast fiber textile provide chain for nationwide safety wants actually appears according to the DOD’s push to maneuver shortly away from poisonous plastic fibers, materials, and finishes in opposition to the pores and skin of our sailors and troopers.”
The crew of the usConstitution has but to weigh in publicly, however Prepare dinner famous that suggestions from the Navy’s contractor was glowing. “We heard the brand new dungarees are stunning and that the Navy was very proud of the completed product,” he stated.
Proof of idea
For Tuscarora Mills, the Structure dungarees characterize greater than a historic copy—they’re a proof of idea for hemp textiles in trendy protection and civilian markets. That message aligns with Prepare dinner’s broader advocacy for hemp textiles: Demand, innovation and funding are wanted to re-establish hemp-specific textile processing and spinning infrastructure within the U.S., he stated.
Whereas international spinners in China, India, Pakistan, and Europe stay lively within the U.S. market, Prepare dinner confused that America has the potential to rebuild its personal bast fiber ecosystem. “Imported textile merchandise usually are not low-cost in any respect, however certainly carry large environmental, well being, financial and nationwide safety prices,” Prepare dinner stated.
As we speak, hemp fiber accounts for less than 0.2% of worldwide textile fiber manufacturing, in response to Textile Alternate, a nonprofit that tracks sustainability practices throughout the textile industries. Within the U.S., most hemp fiber processing caters to non-woven markets similar to composites, filters, and shopper merchandise. Spinning long-line fiber into high-quality yarn stays a problem—however one Prepare dinner believes is solvable.
“Remodeling American hemp into quick staple size ‘cottonized’ fiber and spinning blended hemp-cotton yarn has been a long-term aim,” he famous. “These challenges shall be overcome, as they’ve in China and Europe.”
Pennsylvania legacy
Pennsylvania, as soon as a worldwide chief in pure textiles, is regaining momentum, with teams just like the Pennsylvania Fibershed, the Pennsylvania Flax Mission, and the Pennsylvania Hemp Trade Council pushing initiatives ahead. The state secured a $1 million Nationwide Science Basis grant in 2023 to develop the Pennsylvania Industrial Hemp Engine. Tuscarora is a key a part of this ecosystem, working with native companions to provide 100% hemp yarn and materials.
Prepare dinner sees the Structure undertaking as a symbolic bridge. “We’re at all times open to serving the previous and historical past with conventional makes use of of hemp in textiles and reproductions,” he stated. “However our actual focus is trying ahead and dealing to reintroduce the general public and the Division of Protection to the numerous alternatives hemp and flax provide in high quality, worth, utility and efficiency to residence, trade, and our nationwide safety.”
