Rigging serving board: Joanna Shipwreck

3D Model

Description: 179mmx55mm. Rigger’s serving board/mallet carved from a single piece of bone. Consists of a half cylinder head with decorative grooves alonside the functional, handle, and ball knob at the end of the handle. Minimal damage apart from staining. Worn from use at the conjunction of the handle and head. Rectangle inclusion on serving face of the head from a possible repair.

History: A serving board was used by riggers to wrap twine or other materinal around rigging for protection, sometimes after being ‘parcled’ in fabric. The large semi-circular groove fit around the rope and the twine wrapped around the handle and into the grooves on the head. As the serving board was turned around the rope, the twine tightly wound around the rigging due to the tension created by passing the twine around the serving board.

Shipwreck: The Joanna was a 2 masted wooden schooner built in Mt. Eliza, likely for the lime trade. It wrecked in Port Phillip bay in 1857 and was a total loss with failed salvage efforts.