Hampton Roads Naval Museum

38. Shipfitters' tools, 1800s

Norfolk, VA

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Shipwrights, or shipfitters, were engaged in building the frames, sternpost, and stem of a ship while the keel was being completed. When this work was finished, it was time to devote attention to the "framing platform." This was a device which was set at right angles to the keel, and using its dimensions, shipwrights maneuvered each frame into its precise location and then fastened it securely with a floor frame. In the period before powered sawmills, these frames were beveled by hand in order for the frame to receive the curved planking. This work was done with a broad axe and an adze, and the process was called "dubbing." Planking was fastened to frames with treenails (pronounced and sometimes spelled "trunnels"). These were wooden pegs which were driven into holes bored through the planks and framed with augers. Treenails were usually of oak, cut from the upper part of the tree to be free from sap and knots, and well-seasoned. Some were as much as 36 inches long and 2 inches in diameter. Drilling the holes was a tricky business, and the men who used the augers were specialists in their trade. When the treenails had been driven into the holes, the ends were expanded by the use of thin wedges, locking the pegs in place. When the last plank was in position, the caulkers with their caulking irons and long mallets began to force oakum into the seams between the planks for a watertight integrity over the whole hull. To do this they used a variety of tools (caulking irons) which resembled to some degree oversized shoehorns, and a heavy wooden mallet whose heads were somewhat more elongated and extended than an ordinary mallet - very like a croquet mallet. The oakum was a thick fibrous material which was made by picking old manila cable. When the oakum was forced into the seams and was well packed therein, the whole was "payed" over with hot tar or pitch. Obviously, it took a significant amount of time and effort to get the tar/pitch warm enough to "pay" the seams.