Naval stores

Naval stores are all liquid products derived from conifers. These materials include rosin, tall oil, pine oil, and terpentine. Crude gum or oleoresin can be collected from the wounds of living pine trees.

The term naval stores originally applied to the organic compounds used in building and maintaining wooden sailing ships, a category which includes cordage, mask, turpentine, rosin, pitch and tar. These materials were originally used for water- and weather-proofing wooden ships. Masts, spars, and cordage needed protecting, and hulls made of wood required a flexible material, insoluble in water, to seal the spaces between planks. Pine pitch was often mixed with fibers like hemp to caulk spaces which might otherwise leak.

Presently, pine compounds produced by the naval stores industry are used to manufacture soap, paint, varnish, shoe polish, lubricants, linoleum, and roofing materials.^[1]