The History of the Prevention of Fouling... is lead sheathing age diagnostic ?

[Jolly Mon]

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In McCarthy's Ship's Fastenings , the author states that lead sheathing was discontinued on British ships after around 1690. I am not sure exactly when the Spanish or other nations stopped using it, but it seems to me the presence of lead sheathing would generally indicate a date of construction prior to 1700.

 

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[GatorBoy]

All the Spanish 1715 fleet ships had lead.
The first experiments By the Royal Navy With copper Was in the 1750s.
The Royal Navy started using copper In 1779.

 

[ivan salis]

basically if the hull isheathing is lead , you can safely say the ship is most likely America rev war era or earlier -- post American rev war copper hull plating became the "new" norm -- the old Spanish treasure vessels would have had lead sheathing --so finding lead shealthing is a good sign that you have found a pre 1800 ship wreck

 

[Southern_Digger]

basically if the hull isheathing is lead , you can safely say the ship is most likely America rev war era or earlier -- post American rev war copper hull plating became the "new" norm -- the old Spanish treasure vessels would have had lead sheathing --so finding lead shealthing is a good sign that you have found a pre 1800 ship wreck

Have been reading this for awhile and finally found time to repond as it has been bothering me. This is true and this is not so true. In America, yes, if you are describing navy vessels. On other smaller craft and private vessels, lead was sometimes still used on the hull for reasons of economics. Hence, there are many nineteenth century wrecks bearing lead sheathing because it was still in wide use. In fact, some countries were using lead sheathing well into the 1800's. Case in point, I have a mention of shipwrecks shoaled along the coast after various storms, found by the US Navy between 1839 and 1842. It was the practice to burn them to the waterline in an attempt to keep the Seminoles from obtaining lead from them. Two examples were the 1836 wreck of the Gil Blas; and, a slave ship of unknown origin, shoaled north of Jupiter Inlet. On the latter wreck, the Navy actually found the Seminoles attempting to retrieve lead from the hull. It was torched under the watchful eyes of the Seminoles who were posted on the bluff above.