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Sailmakers even in my days always carried their own needles in a metal box ,in my time it was a metal tobacco box , and were known for always holding a very sharp knife ,after every cut we resharpened our knives and finished on a piece of wood or leather and shame was put on to the apprentice with a blunt knife ,,

Yes I think your right as from what I gather journeymen ALSO went sailing on the ship to repair any faults while on trial runs testing the equipments so  small faults were rectified  on board for the clients even though there was most probably a permanent sailmaker on board ,
 It was the custom then to give a silver (trophy) for men who had done their time in the dockyard   and as sailmaking paid very well and there was lots of work if you were good at it ,an awful lot started their own business outside and as I imagine he left after a promotion ,thus even though he left earlier , I imagine he may have been a chief of some sort (thus the silver BOX) which he may have kept his needles in ,and ,classified as a (master sailmaker) AND PROBABLY HAD HIS OWN BUSINESS OUTSIDE ALREADY ESTABLISHED years before ,, as many did even while I worked there
As for the rope factory I believe the first place burnt down in Southyard and the other was bombed out in the Plymouth blitz WWII  in Northyard as was the sail loft , myself  I only worked in Mauriceyard
The dry docks were built by the POW of the Napoleon wars  from granite I believe most of the dockyard were built with them and its quite impressive what they done  (poor guys) worth seeing, very much so on (NAVY DAYS) a very good show for all but bring earplugs for small children as cannons make a good noise ,, lol The RAF,Marines, Commandos ?Wrens make it a great day where you can also go in the war boats and submarines to visit  while you can see where your ancestors worked

In fact there were many sail lofts in and around Devonport and still are as all around plymouth there were ship repairers for small boats including a very  large fishing fleet at that time
 The dockyard in 1967 I believe employed 11,000 people at the time and at that time we made very few sails after the royal navy was modernised as we made mainly awnings and covers for guns  amongst many other things  mainly done by hand which took a long time to do ,for example to put a hole in the corner of an awning to put tight  we had a time limit of 20 minutes  as all hand made

The date you are talking about Sailmakers they were important and had plenty of work all over Plymouth as there were a lot of very small docks for different things each specialising for their boats ,The merchant navy was also important at that time not counting the emigrations to America and the local small boats I have never heard of the dockyard employing outside contractors as x navy men not wanting to sail anymore were pre destined to work in the dockyard but there was no problem to find work after an apprenticeship even for young pretendants newly emigrated  to Plymouth which was a booming town

Hi In fact I was a sailmaker in the Dockyard in 1967 and we about 50 sailmakers at the time but we had no contact with the ropemakers in there as it was considered another job as it still is even in Holland ! Your sailmaker most certainly did NOT work in  the dockyard as there were many small businesses around at the time and even now in and around Devonport so there is no point going to the musum because even the trade was different as we done most work by hand and not even the same stitching
regards gord