SEA HISTORY for kids Trees for Wooden Ships ood floats. Wood is a great made from curvy, twisted wood called material for building boats be- compass timber. Compass timbers are Wcause wood floats (except for wood pieces cut for ship construction a few oddities, like lignum vitae, which to use their natural curves to fit parts of you can read about on page 17). When the hull that require that same curved English settlers first arrived in America, shape. Shipbuilders can steam planks they were very excited to find the land to make them bend somewhat, but the covered with thick forests. You see, Eng- natural curve of the wood grain makes land in the 1600s was the greatest mari- an even stronger piece. time power in the world, but they had One of the most common trees in a big problem. They had built so many colonial New England was the white ships that they had run out of trees. pine. White pines grow very tall and Suddenly, they had access to a whole straight—back then, many grew as tall new supply of timber for shipbuilding. as 150 feet. They are strong Where some people saw forests of trees, and flexible—perfect for Southern Live Oak others saw forests of ships’ masts. spars (any wooden pole Shipbuilding became big business. best known for its great size and natural The colonists cut down so many trees twists and bends, which shipbuild- for ships’ hulls that, in time, the entire ers used for compass timbers. Live New England landscape had changed. oak was so important to shipbuild- If you needed to build yourself a ing that the young United States boat or a ship, you would, of course, Navy reserved thousands of acres use whatever wood you could get. of southern woodlands to make sure If you had a choice, however, you it would have enough for its ships. would be smart to pick different USS Constitution was built with live types of wood to build different parts oak frames. Her hull was so strong of your ship. The keel, or backbone, that she was nicknamed “Old Iron- of a ship, for instance, needs to sides” because sailors had witnessed be made of one long straight tree. cannonballs bouncing(!) off her hull Masts should come from straight tim- in battle. Oak is incredibly hard, not as bers too, but masts, unlike some parts of used to support sails and rigging, such flexible as pine, so it was good for the the hull, need flexibility so that they can as masts, booms, gaffs, and the bow- hull but not for the spars. bend with the wind without breaking. sprit). Pine is also not as heavy as some There are lots of other types of wood Other parts of the ship, knees and frames other choices, such as oak, and this was that were used in shipbuilding. The de- (the ship’s ribs), for example, are best a good thing. Too much weight way up cision to choose one wood over another high on a sailing ship would make the depended on a few factors: what part Knees made from compass timber sup- vessel top-heavy and unstable. of the ship it would be used for, how port the deck on the massive lumber Another great tree abundant in many trees were available, how much it schooner C. A. Thayer in San Francisco. North America was the oak tree. White weighed, and, naturally, its strength. oak and southern live oak were ideal Today, wooden ships are built with choices for the the keel and frames a much larger range of wood types be- (the ship’s skeleton), which had to be cause we can buy timber from all over very strong to withstand the stresses the world to get exactly what we want. of the wind and waves and to support Many boatbuilders laminate (glue) piec- the weight of everything that would es of wood together because it is harder go into the ship. Live oak is the heavi- to find the big-sized trees they need—or est of all oaks. It resists rot, something because if they do find a great big tree, very important for a wooden ship that they don’t necessarily think it’s a good knees HABS HAER PHOTO will spend its life in seawater. Live oak is idea to chop it down anymore.

22 SEA HISTORY 119, SUMMER 2007