| The overseers were required to provide oakum so that the able-bodied poor could be kept at labor. |
| The old tar was pleased mightily, and the smell of oakum and bilge water appeared to act on him like a tonic. |
| The strings are very strong and should not be confused with the oakum, for example, which has a weaker structure. |
| But the oakum washed away in no time, and water poured below decks, soaking the fan belts of the blower pipes and preventing them from working. |
| A caulking iron and wooden mallet were used to drive the oakum into each seam. |
| It is widely used in manufacturing tarred ropes and twine and in impregnating hemp fibre for oakum. |
