Holystone

A holystone was a soft sandstone block used to scour the wooden decks of sailing warships and merchantmen during the Age of Sail. Sailors knelt to rub the wet, sanded deck planks smooth and white, larger blocks being called bibles and smaller ones prayer books, names that gave the practice its religious nicknames. The work was hard on the knees and the deck timbers alike, and the Royal Navy formally abolished it in the late nineteenth century. It survives as a vivid detail of shipboard routine and seamanship heritage.