DRY ROT IN SHIPS.
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little difference between Phineas Pett's Sovereign of the Seas
built in 1637 for the Ship Money Fleet and the last wooden
warships. This was partly due to conservatism, but more to
the kind of timber needed for their construction. "The
limitations of the tree proved the limitations of the ship,"
according to Jane—certain parts of the ship's frame already
required the largest oaks available.
There was some increase in tonnage, but the second Royal
George of 1788 was only twelve feet longer and two feet wider
than the Royal Sovereign of 1719. Charnock in 1804 says :
"The size of our ships seems now to have reached its ultimation,
for nature itself in some measure fixes its limits. . . .
Timber, the growth of nature as much as man, cannot be made
to grow larger." The ships themselves did not become obsolete ;
the Royal William built at Portsmouth in 1719 took part in
Howe's relief of Gibraltar when over sixty years old and bore
the flag of the port Admiral at Spithead in 1805. It was the
"great" and "compass" or curved timber of exceptional size
and shape used for the most part in the frame of the ship which
were partially responsible for the static state of naval architecture.
Apart from wreck and war there was no need theoretically for
constant renewal of a fleet. A ship once built during the galley
stage, or a ship built during the broadside stage, should have lasted
throughout the period. But events proved that ships' timber
rotted and there had to be a return to port for refitting. There
was thus constantly a need for timber for repairing ships and for
building new ones.
Nine years after the civil establishment of the navy Henry
VIII found it necessary to have the state of his ships examined ;
out of the thirteen not one was in a proper condition for service.
Elizabeth, on ascending the throne, found but thirty-two Royal
ships, ten of which were decayed.
Up to 1804 only four kinds of timber were used to any
extent in the hulls of the King's ships—oak, elm, beech and
fir ; of these, oak was in far the largest proportion. Indeed, if
there had been sufficient oak there would have been no desire
to use other timber for, as Evelyn says, it is "tough, bending
well, strong and not too heavy, nor easily admitting water."
But it was not enough that ships be built of oak; it must be
English oak, preferably from the south-eastern counties,