Naval Stores

Naval stores are the resin-derived products used to build and maintain wooden sailing ships: tar, pitch, turpentine, and rosin, made from pine. They sealed seams, preserved rigging, and waterproofed hulls. Through the 17th and 18th centuries the Baltic supplied Britain until the colonial American South, the Carolinas especially, became the dominant source; the British Naval Stores Act 1705 subsidized colonial production to reduce reliance on Sweden and the eastern Baltic.