squilgees

Updated: May 2, 2025

An hour or two we were kept at this work, when the head-pump was manned, and all the sand washed off the decks and sides. Then came swabs and squilgees; and, after the decks were dry, each one went to his particular morning job.

Richard Henry Dana - Two Years Before the Mast

An hour or two, we were kept at this work, when the head-pump was manned, and all the sand washed off the decks and sides. Then came swabs and squilgees; and after the decks were dry, each one went to his particular morning job.

Richard Henry Dana - Two Years Before the Mast

Here the seamen fill their buckets, and proceed with the scouring of the main-deck. Such a scrubbing and mopping! I need scarcely explain that holystone is a large soft stone, used with water, for scrubbing the dirt off the ship's decks. It rubs down with sand; the sand is washed off by buckets of water thrown down, all is well mopped, and the deck is then finished off with India-rubber squilgees.

Samuel Smiles - A Boy's Voyage Round the World