BOARD 6

This board contains many copper and bronze ships nails.

No.248 is a 4⅜" bronze nail stamped “USNYW”, which stands for United States Naval Yard Washington, bought from California.  No.259 is a heavy copper nail used for securing copper plates to ships hulls after they have been holed below the waterline. No.256 shows a collection of Roman nails, and no.260 in the little wooden case is what remains of a nail from the Newport Ship after lying buried in the banks of the River Usk in South Wales for six hundred years. This ship is now under preservation in Newport.

The metal plate with holes in is a surgical nail gauge as used in orthopaedics for repairing broken bones (see subsequent pages).