Why Did Sailors Swab The Deck? - Naval History Animated

This video is going to answer one simple question: Why did sailors swab the deck? This is one of the first videos in an animated naval history series I'm doing.

Sailors swabbed the deck for several reasons, the first being to clean and preserve the deck. By working salt water into the wood of the deck it prevented the growth of fungus and washed freshwater away which would rot the wood. The second reason was that it swelled the wood, making the ship more watertight. Surprisingly a dry ship was a ship with wet wood.

Sources:

The Naval Heritage Foundation - United States Navy

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About me:
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I'm Imperial Scribe, I make animations about military and naval history as well as war theory. I put out 1-2 major battle videos per month with a number of shorter videos in between.

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Suggestions:
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The British Empires Battleship, The Ship of the Line:

Origin: "8 Bells and All's Well":

The Battle Of Isandlawanda:

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Schedule:
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Upcoming videos:

June:
The Battle of Isandlawanda [full length]
The Battle of Roarks Drift [full length]
Ship of the line [Short length]
Origin: Three Sheets to the Wind [Short length]

Note: Schedule is tentative.

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Attributions:
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Music (outro):
FarAway - Copyrightfreemusic

Stock sound effects:

May include miscellaneous licensed stock art.

Information is derived from a number of historical sources including websites, historians, and literature. The fog of history is a real thing, even relatively recent events often have sources in disagreement or relying on one another. When possible information is derived from first-hand sources and where not possible information is found by taking multiple second-hand sources. It is not possible for anyone to guarantee perfect historical accuracy, but I do my absolute best to ensure that all information in my videos is well sourced and backed up by historical sources and evidence.

[aierce]

You got to the point without babbling for 30 minutes. Bravo!

[UniversalRook]

Dude this video is a gem. Just a nice short video that actually answers the question, instead of going on for 11 minutes, where ill just have to skip to 7 minutes to find the answer. Thank you dude for making a video that just simply answers the title. Subbed + Like.

[atnasingetnamn]

Damn, I loved this- to the point, no crazy intro or screwing about. Kudos for it mate!

[Corey-qfbo]

Great information. Straight to the point! Keep up the good work!

[Aldrahill]

Nice and informative, plus straight to the point I've been meaning to make an educational series myself so it's nice to see how it could be done in a minimalistic sense :)

[SpacePilotOfficial]

Ah yes water and fungus: mankind's fears. Good video. Gave a like.

[CascadiaRat]

Well, partially true. You forgot one rather important part. Washing down was mostly cleaning the deck. A Swab is a rope yarn mop. Swabbing was primarily done to keep the decks clean and DRY with the mop....An often done chore on wood decking was what is called "Holystone". The process of scrubbing the deck with an abrasive, usually a stone, quite often, Pumice . The name came from the fact that the stones were about the size of a hand bible. Smaller stones for more intricate work were called "Prayer book".. Sometimes they spread sand on the deck and used that to scrub. Wood gets slippery from many sources. Having slippery decks not so good on a deck in weather. So Holystoning then swabbing kept the decks clean and relatively slip free. The idea that it was to keep it from drying out or to reduce molds and/or fungus growth begs the question... The ocean being salty and decks often wet from the ship's motion, wouldn't require Swabbing so much for the reasons stated. However, when a ship was in the tropics or hot dry conditions, Buckets of water was thrown on deck for some of the reasons mentioned in the video. Swabbing is using mops to move the water around and minimally used to wet the wooden decks. In later years, military ships used Teak wood. Teak is an oily wood, so Holystoning and swabbing was done to keep the oils on the surface of the wood. Ref: Facts on File Dict. Nautical Terms .. Msrs. Lenfestey and other Nautical reference books.

[mikemontrose]

Listening to this and reading the comments I noticed that you all missed the most important secondary need to swab/scrub the decks. Discipline, you are on a voyage for months or even years, keep the men working and working hard, it gives purpose, keeps the men fit and strong; it keeps them on their knees in a subservient role and maintaining master- serf relationship. It was not an act of cruelty rather a very effective staff management tool. As its a task that is necessary it could be required to be done more often than actually required, indeed, to be cruel they would give a back breaking job for which there was no point or need. At the same time the ship always looked spick and span adding to pride in the ship and oneself. I could go on for pages explaining this but I'm sure you get the picture

[TheGreatApostate]

I swabbed the deck in episode 11 season 2 of game of thrones.

[Rimpala]

Ah, I always thought it was to basically clean up after a big naval battle, because those could be pretty gruesome with all the shrapnel from the cannons and how limbs had to be severed if they were damaged and... it just was an all around messy time XD

[shannonlane]

Wouldn't that make the wood dry out and get brittle faster?

[Raz.C]

Hi all
I've just spent 20 minutes failing to find an answer to the following:
In the age of sail (let's say the 16th to the 18th century) how long would the average service life of a military ship be?
As I understand it, a Ship-Of-The-Line was the most expensive ship to build, but having built one, how long might you reasonably expect it to remain in service before it needed to be scrapped/ otherwise retired?
Ps: Not just Ships-Of-The-Line, but ships of all sizes/ classes. How long would they be expected to remain in service before becoming obsolete?

[blossomrusso]

Yo I'd be growin mad shrooms on ma deck

[badbattleaxe]

Yar-ha-har
Swab my deck
Yar-ha-har
Show me how you're moppin' it
Wash your deck
Show it good
Wax that ass
My legs of wood
Yar-ha-har

[Ricobaca]

Now awadays they clean the saltwater off the boat.

[richardcranium]

You swap a deck with a SWAB not a mop. I know they are the same thing but sailors "swab". Everyone else "mops".