Ballast Stones
Material – Stone
Place of Origin – Unknown, likely England
Ballast is any heavy material loaded into a ship’s bilge to help improve its floating stability. Ballast is loaded into the lower portions of a ship to help redistribute its weight and provide a counterbalance to the heavy upper portions and tall masts. Loaded ships would sit lower in the water thus making them less susceptible to rough conditions. The amount of ballast needed depended on sailing conditions, water depth, and the amount of cargo being transported. As needed, ballast would be loaded and unloaded at the wharves.
The 1660/1663 Navigation Acts restricted direct foreign imports to the English colonies and dictated that all foreign goods had to first pass through England and colonists could only trade with English vessels.1 During the 17th and 18th centuries, river cobbles were a commonly used ballast material on English ships. Stone materials do not occur naturally in the South Carolina Lowcountry and any stones that we find were brought in from elsewhere. Many of the stones were unloaded on the wharves and used to help fortify the Charleston peninsula. On low tide you may catch a glimpse of some of these along the water’s edge off the promenade at the Battery in downtown Charleston. Due to the lack of naturally occurring stone materials the colonists often reused the ballast for other purposes. The smooth, water worn river stones were used to create cobblestone streets, a few of which still survive in Charleston (Adger’s Wharf, Chalmers Street, Gillon Street, Longitude Lane, Maiden Lane, and Philadelphia Alley). Ballast stones were used as building materials and tools, like grinding or smoothing. Chert ballast stones could be knapped into gunflints, strike-a-lights, spokeshaves, and other tools.
Archaeologists have recovered a few whole river cobbles from the c.1670-1690s Charles Towne settlement. One of which is still in-situ and visitors can see it when they are touring the active excavation site.
1. Leo Hollis, London Rising: The Men Who Made Modern London (Walker & Company, New York, NY, 2008), 188-189; Christian J. Koot, Empire on the Periphery: British Colonists, Anglo-Dutch Trade, and the Development of the British Atlantic, 1621-1713 (New York University Press, New York, NY, 2011), 90-91.
