DRY ROT IN SHIPS. 247
called "Rotten Row." At the beginning of another war
some of these ships were found to be unserviceable, and the
timber they contained almost a total loss. A fleet formidable
enough on paper had decayed into insignificance. In the haste
to call a new fleet into being timber was hurriedly acquired and
ships hastily constructed with this unseasoned material, material
which was also used to patch up the reserve. Rushed to sea
they rotted with notorious speed.
At least every three years a ship was supposed to go into dock
for examination. Then any timber or plank which had rotted
or cracked could be replaced or repaired. It was economical
to have such repairs carried out regularly, but about one-third
of the timber stores was consumed in this way. To neglect
repairs meant the spread of rot and the whole vessel would be
wracked out of shape in heavy seas.
When the war with Revolutionary France broke out the
stores of timber accumulated by Middleton served their purpose,
and no complaints were heard about inadequacy of supplies.
Spencer's ambitious building of two hundred new ships, however,
not only exhausted the supplies, but drained the native forests.8
In the last years of the century reports of leaky vessels began
to be heard, and when hostilities ceased in 1801 the Navy,
after being on steady service since 1793, was in sore need of
repair.
But St. Vincent, who had replaced Spencer in 1801, was
bent on economy. He cancelled timber contracts and also got
at loggerheads with the timber trust. All the old errors were
repeated and when hostilities reopened in 1803 the fleet he
sent to blockade the enemy naval bases were far from sound.
Nelson wrote from Toulon in July, 1803: "The fleet here upon
"paper are very formidable, but in fact the Victory, Bellisle
"and Donegal are the only ships fit to keep the sea; the rest
"are unfit for service until docked, altho amongst the finest
"and certainly best-manned ships in the service." Later he
reported that three of the ships should be replaced and that
four of the others would not stand the winter gales. He wrote,
moreover, of "my crazy Fleet." The other squadrons were in
The Temeraire was built at Chatham in 1798 from oak of Hainault Forest. She was of
2,121 tonnage and more than 2,000 large well-grown timber trees were needed for her construction.
In 1771 it was stated "That on Epping Forest there is no Timber fit for the Use of the Navy :
that there is a great deal of Land there very proper to be enclosed ; and there is no other way
of preserving Timber there."
B