Even the USS Constitution (1797) used iron strapping. Then there's the better known HMS Orlando and HMS Mersey, the Great Republic and Wyoming and SS Appomattox, all of which pushed the limits off wooden ships, even though fairly heavily reinforced with steel and iron. Of course, no list would be complete without Caligula's love barge which is about 350', built around the time of Christ. The Scottish built Great Michael was about 250' in the 16th century. The Egyptians used 300' barges to move stone for various building projects, at least as far back as 1,500 BC.

The Chinese built 400' exploration vessels in the 14th century. We can skip Noah's ark at 450' it think, but a fair bit of gopherwood I'd say. The Greek trireme Tessarakonteres was all wood and references suggest it was 410', though reliable documentation limited at best, well within your range of a big wooden ship. Large wooden ships have been possable for (also) longer than you might think. Welded steel didn't become reasonable until much later, with early renditions being riveted or bolted. Iron and steel structures have existed in wooden ships for quite a while, much longer then you'd think. But it makes me ask the question, why not have a huge wooden hull over a metal frame? Would that make larger sizes feasible? Or are there other engineering problems that would raise their head? I understand global strength issues but don't know why a bendy boat should leak at one end if it's too big.

Past reading on the topic from web searches seems to indicate much over 200 foot there is very little out there, I read once about some british ship over 300 feet which had problems with endless leaking though i'm not fully sure why. Why are 'truly large' wooden ships uncommon? Howdy everyone, i've been on and off reading for years usually when entering random google terms on various things that have always fascinated me about boats, ships, yachts and the rest, and decided to finally get an account and make it more interactive since there seems to be some well educated and intelligent people here.Īlot of my explorations are likely to be more 'fun' (mental play due to an interest in boat design, no idea how close to actually applying any knowledge I learn will ever be at this point in my life, even if I have a long term interest in moving to the west coast and living on a houseboat) and far more long term (any serious shipbuilding project is at least years off for funding reasons alone even if I relocate to Duluth up by the Great Lakes where I could use it) although some later-in-life career changes with six figure potential could make even large projects feasible by retirement age.īut enough about me - at the moment I had an itch of a question that's been bugging me for about two decades.

Wooden ship construction