244 THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
of the Seven Years War was so far rotted that it could not hold
the sheathing nails and split apart under the slight strain.7
Fortunately in 1778 Sir Charles Middleton (afterwards Lord
Bartram) became Comptroller of the Navy Board. The
Admiralty's resolve to keep 66,000 loads of oak timber (a three
years' supply on the average of the previous twenty years)
had not been carried out, and Middleton set about the problem
in earnest. He had got together a reserve of naval stores in
general, including 88,000 loads of timber and several years'
supply of masts by 1790, when he resigned because of the hostility
of Howe, the First Lord of the Admiralty, who accused him of
"extravagance." It was owing to this extravagance that there
was no timber problem during the wars with Revolutionary
France.
Parliament was not inert. Criticisms had been made without
restraint of the condition of the Navy during the succession of
naval wars and concern was repeatedly expressed about the need
for timber. In 1787 a Commission, headed by Middleton, was
appointed to enquire into the state and condition of the woods,
forests and land revenues of the crown. They issued seventeen
reports in the first series (1787-93) and three in the second
(1812-19); the one on Naval Timber was published in 1792,
and with appendixes occupies over a hundred pages, and is a
valuable source of information. It states that "Timber in
"Hedgerows which is the most valuable for Naval Uses is
"decreased most," and that the stock of great timber is so
much and so generally diminished that the supply cannot
continue. This decrease was attributed to the extension of tillage
rendered necessary by the increase of population and by an
improved system of farming in consequence of which fields are
enlarged and hedges grubbed up. The oak requires from one
hundred to one hundred and fifty years to reach the size required
by the Navy and that then being used was the result of Evelyn's
propaganda. Any temporary scarcity of timber could not be
dealt with like corn merely by converting land. They recom-
mended larch as the tree which would produce an adequate
supply of timber in the least time, being "the best substitute for
oak we have heard of." Millions of larches were planted as a
7 In 1545 the loss of the Mary Rose near the same spot when moving out with the fleet caused
similar dismay, and was doubtless due to decay. Her wreck was found when search was being
made for the Royal George.