Without reading it, my guess is that he was referring to unbending the sail and stowing it, before Dacron, sails made of cotton had to be looked after obsessively. No Furlers and uv strips no lazy bags/ stackers. Dried and stowed properly was the only choice. It's not a gaff thing

I read Slocum almost 40 years ago so my memory of the book are a little hazy.
Well. maybe more than a little.

Slocum was a seaman first and a author second , so i feel that what he wrote (stripped the sails) means exactly that .
As Woko has said, cotton sails were vulnerable to all sorts of damage and Slocum was traveling on a shoestring.
He probably would have taken down and stowed any sail that he didn't need to get as much life out of them as he could.
Forget about going baggy.
Cotton or flax sails would have just disintegrated.

It give you more respect for Cook keeping poor old Endeavor going?

gary

BROWNSMTRACE said..
HAVE BEEN RE READING JOSHUA SLOCUM , I find it fascinating picking out information on how he did things back then which was great seamanship compared to how slack we are now .
one of the things I find interesting is he states he stripped off the sail he seems to mean completely , do you think he would do that with a gaff or do you think he just means took it in and lashed it ? This one is a free read if your interested.
www.bostonleadershipbuilders.com/slocum/text.htm

In Slocoms context of stripping he took all the sails off ,stored them below ,and sailed under bare poles.
""The Spray, stripped of her sails, then bore off under bare poles. No ship in the world could have stood up against so violent a gale. Knowing that this"

Excerpt from
Sailing Alone Around the World
Joshua Slocum
books.apple.com/au/book/sailing-alone-around-the-world/id502250818
This material may be protected by copyright."