Here is extraordinarily rare artifact
that comes directly from Titanic's D-deck. It was
affixed to a storage room partition in the galley,
close the the edge of the door frame. Through intense
research and hours of investigating, this small stiff
piece of canvas can be confidently identified as a
"Stopwater." To get an understanding what
this was used for, time-era ship building manuals
give this exact definition:
STOPWATER (In riveted ships)
- A packing of felt or canvas and red lead used to
prevent water from passing through metal parts where
calking is impracticable.
This packing is typically seen where
plates overlap, around rivets or where an extra watertight
sealant was needed. It was applied as a loose material,
covered and/or soaked then hardened to form a tight
seal. Other materials known to be used as a stopwater,
depending on the type or construction of the ship
were burlap, linseed oil and tar.
