6.4 Naval stores and the longleaf pine In a time before cars,
trains, and airplanes, water was often the easiest — or the only
— means of long-distance transportation. Eighteenth-century
ships were sailing ships, and they were made almost entirely of
wood. Building and maintaining wooden ships required specialized
materials and a global industry to produce them. Naval stores
are goods (stores, or things stored for later use) used in
building and maintaining ships. Originally, “naval stores”
included everything used to build a ship, including wood and
cloth, but by the end of the colonial period it meant tar,
pitch, and turpentine. All of these products were manufactured
from pine trees, which North Carolina had in abundance. For that
reason and others, North Carolina became a key supplier to the
British Navy, and naval stores became central to the colony’s
economy. Tar, pitch, and turpentine If you’ve ever mistakenly
thrown an evergreen bough on a campfire, used a chipper-shredder
to clear brush, or even put