So how long DO books survive underwater?

[siyamau]

Going down my usual rabbit hole of internet research, I was thinking about Stede's books being thrown overboard, googled 'how long can books survive in seawater?' and the only information I came upon was about printed text found surviving in Blackbeard's ship. So obviously I'm sharing it here, because it's too much of a coincidence not to.

Book fragments found in the wreck of the Queen Anne's Revenge.

(Also the whole 'who can read / why would there be books aboard a pirate ship / what books would they be' thing and the fact of where they were found is giving me all kinds of often hilarious and very OFMD mental images!)

Comments

[violateraindrop]

This is super interesting! Thanks for sharing :)
I honestly never thought about this. I figured that the books thrown overboard would be unsalvageable quickly and the only thing left is paper mush.

[saraqael]

Fascinating! Someone aboard Blackbeard's ship at some point had a copy of Cooke's book, "A voyage to the South Sea, and round the world, perform'd in the years 1708, 1709, 1710, and 1711." And it' about sailing under the captaincy of Woodes Rogers, the man who would become famous for stamping out piracy in the Caribbean. I am so intrigued!

[goodbyebird]

That's really neat! Books were made of sturdier stuff back in the day ;) Though of course they were contained within the ship, not free-floating around all my their lonesome, tossed and pulled by the currents.

[tarlanx]

Thanks for the link... that was fascinating :)