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All wooden ships leak, a stark fact that has terrified sailors
since the earliest days of ocean travel. Maritime historical
literature is filled with horrific descriptions of being aboard a
slowly sinking ship. Starting from this human perspective, then,
Thomas J. Oertling traces the five-hundred-year evolution of a
seemingly mundane but obviously important piece of seafaring
equipment-and tells the story of nautical innovation-in this one of
a kind history of the ship bilge pump. Beginning with early
sixteenth-century documents that recorded bilge pump design and
installation and ending at about 1840, when bilge pumps were being
mass-produced, Oertling covers a period of radical technological
change. He describes the process of making long wooden pump tubes
by hand, as well as the assembly of the machine-crafted pumps that
helped revolutionize ship construction and design. Also given in
detail are the creation, function, and development of all three
types of pumps used from about 1500 to well into the nineteenth
century-the burr pump, the suction or common pump, and the chain
pump. Of further interest is Oertling's overall examination of the
nature and management of leaks in ships' hulls. This work is well
illustrated, with line art depicting the placement and use of pumps
aboard the ships, early drawings showing pump design, and
photographs revealing artifacts recently found at shipwreck sites.
Of obvious interest to nautical archaeologists, maritime
historians, and ship modelers, this book is written in an
interesting and informative style, rendering it easily accessible
to laypersons and amateur enthusiasts.
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