1800's Shipbuilding Hand Soldering Tool from Searsport

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This is an original shipbuilding tinsmiths's finishing tool that came out of a Maine Searsport collection. Measures 14 inches long and is complete with protector cap between iron shaft and handle. Weighs about 1 pound with a solid copper heating head. Original wooden contour handle. Connection shaft pitted from use, age and sea salts since construction took place in a coastal shipyard. Iron blacksmith forged bar connects the handle with the copper head. Original wooden handle with two minor splits from age. Used to solder plates and tinwork to specific areas on the ship for drainage or complete water seal w needed. This tool saw heavy use and is a mid to late 1800's boat building tinsmith's tool. This is from a collection that I recently acquired in Searsport Maine. Used by tinsmiths for other no maritime applications also but this one came from a ship building yard. Excellent condition and is a museum piece. Shipbuilding is the construction of ships. It normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders, originally called shipwrights, follow a specialized occupation that traces its roots to before recorded history. Shipbuilding and ship repairs, both commercial and military, are referred to as the "naval sector". The dismantling of ships is called ship breaking. The construction of boats is a similar activity called boat building. Archaeological evidence indicates that humans arrived on New Guinea at least 60,000 years ago, probably by sea from Southeast Asia during an ice age period when the sea was lower and distances between islands shorter. (See History of Papua New Guinea.) The ancestors of Australian Aborigines and New Guineans went across the Lombok Strait to Sahul by boat over 50,000 years ago. Evidence from ancient Egypt shows that the early Egyptians already knew how to assemble planks of wood into a watertight hull, using treenails to fasten them together, and pitch for caulking the seams. The "Khufu ship", a 43.6 m long vessel sealed into a pit in the Giza pyramid complex at the foot of the Great Pyramid of Giza in the Fourth Dynasty around 2,500 BC, is a full-size surviving example which may have fulfilled the symbolic function of a solar barque. The ships of the Eighteenth Dynasty were typically about 25 meters (80 ft) in length, and had a single mast, sometimes consisting of two poles lashed together at the top making an "A" shape. They mounted a single square sail on a yard, with an additional spar along the bottom of the sail. These ships could also be oar propelled. The ships of Phoenicia seems to have been of a similar design. The Greeks and probably others introduced the use of multiple banks of oars for additional speed, and the ships were of a light construction, for speed and so they could be carried ashore. Viking longships developed from an alternate tradition of clinker-built hulls fastened with leather thongs. Sometime around the 12th century, northern European ships began to be built with a straight sternpost, enabling the mounting of a rudder, which was much more durable than a steering oar held over the side. Development in the Middle Ages favored "round ships", with a broad beam and heavily curved at both ends. The introduction of cannons onto ships encouraged the development of tumblehome, the inward slant of the abovewater hull, for additional stability, as well as techniques for strengthening the internal frame. This kind of considerations, as well as the demand for ships capable of operating safely in the open ocean, led to the documentation of design and construction practice in what had previously been a secretive trade, and ultimately the field of naval architecture. Even so, construction techniques changed only very gradually; the ships of the Spanish Armada were internally very similarly to those of the Napoleonic Wars over two centuries later. Iron was gradually adopted in ship construction, initially in small areas needing greater strength, then throughout, although initially copying wooden construction. Isambard Brunel's Great Brit... read more

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