Trees for Wooderi SJiips ood floats . Wood is a great made from curvy, twisted wood called material for building boats be- compass timber. Compass timbers are cause wood floats (except fo r wood pieces cut for ship co nstruction 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 settl ers first arrived in America, shape. Shipbuilders can steam planks chey 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. One of the most common trees in time power in the world, but they had a bi g 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 shipbuildin g. \\ as 150 feet. 1hey are stro ng · and Bexible-perfecc for W here so me people saw forests of trees, ochers saw forests of ships' masts. spars (any wooden pole best known for its great size and natural Shipbuilding became big business. · _ twists and bends, which shipbuildThe colonises cue down so many trees ~~~fJl-1ENO>:.''!(dJHlr'tot.'/jfjF ers used fo r co mpass timbers. Live for ships' hulls chat, in time, che emire \ New England landscape had chan ged. \ // '-- oak was so important to shipbuildIf yo u needed to build yo urself a /; ing that the young United States Navy reserved thousands of acres boat or a ship, yo u would, of course, 1 of so uthern woodlands to make sure use whatever wood yo u could get. If you had a choice, however, yo u . it would have enough for its ships. would be smart to pick different i\\ \I\ USS Constitution was built with live rypes of wood to build differem parts!:::::i.,.v. M\ ~ak frames. Her hull was so strong of your ship. The keel, or backbone, ~ ~:!1~1\~=~~~E!::~~2•-:_ that she was nicknamed "Old Iron• sides" because sailors had witnessed of a ship, for instance, needs to be made of one long straight tree. · ....-:1 cannonballs bouncing(!) off her hull in battle. Oak is in credibly hard, not as M ases should come from straight timbers too, but masts, unlike some parts of used to support sails and ri ggi ng, such flexible as pine, so it was good for the the hull, need Bexibiliry so that they can as masts, booms, gaffs, and the bow- hull but not for the spars. bend with the wind without breaki ng. sprit). Pine is also not as heavy as some There are lots of other rypes 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 wo uld make the depended on a few factors: what part Knees made from compass timber supof the ship it would be used for, how vessel top-heavy and unstable. port the deck on the massive lumber Another great tree abundam in many trees were available, how much it schooner C. A. Thayer in San Francisco. North America was che oal< 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 rypes be(the ship's skeleton), which had to be cause we can buy timber from all over very strong to withstand the stresses the wo rld to get exactly what we want. of the wind and waves and to support Many boatbuilders Laminate (glue) piecthe 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-s ized trees they need-or est of all oaks. It resists rot, so mething 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 J, will spend its life in seawater. Live oak is idea to chop it down anymore.
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