The Chaplin's patent distilling apparatus with Steam pump for circulating water attached was an early design of an evaporator, a device for producing fresh water on board ship by distillation of seawater. An example of this apparatus has been recovered from the wreck of SS Xantho (1872),[1] an auxiliary steamship used in Australia to transport passengers and trade goods before ultimately sinking in Port Gregory, Western Australia in 1872. It is purported[by whom?] that the Alexander Chaplin distiller from the Xantho wreck is the only known surviving example of a Chaplin distilling apparatus on board a vessel of this period.