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Introduction

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There have been many contenders for the title of world's largest wooden ship, although not all of the claims are credible.[1] Some of these ships benefitted from substantial iron or even steel components since the flexing of wood members can lead to significant leaking as these ships become larger. Some of these ships were not very seaworthy. Some large ships were never able to leave their berths.

Contenders for "World's Largest Wooden Ship"

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  • The Swedish ship Göteborg has a length of 40.9 meters (134.19 feet), or 58.5 meters long (200.13 feet) including bowsprit. This ship is a replica of original that sank off Göteborg in 1745, and was launched in 2003.
  • The British ship SV Tenacious is 65 meters (213.25 feet) long. The SV Tenacious is a recently constructed wood ship and is specially designed to accommodate the disabled.
  • The Danish ship Fregatten Jylland has a length of 71 meters (233 feet). It was launched in 1860 and decommissioned in 1908.
  • The Kuwaiti ship Al-Hashemi-II has a length of 83.7 meters (274.6 feet). Its construction started in 1985, and it is currently still under construction. It will be used as a museum and never put to sea.[3]
  • The British ship Baron of Renfrew was 92.65 meters long, 18.59 meters wide and 10.36 meters tall (304 feet × 61 feet × 34 feet). The Baron of Renfrew was a disposable ship, or timber ship, also known as a timber drogher. It was built and dismantled after one voyage in 1825. Its wooden components were sold after being towed from Quebec to Europe, since this scheme avoided certain taxes. She was not particularly seaworthy:

She left Quebec Augt. 23rd & filled with water 650 Miles from land, drew 33 ft. & had 31 ft. water in her Hold, was waterlogged & went ashore in 3 pieces 24th Octr: near Calais.[4]

  • The American ship Appomattox had a length of 97.2 meters (319 feet). It was built in 1896 and went aground in a fog on the Great Lakes in 1905. Because of its immense length, it used metallic cross bracing , a metallic keelson, metallic plates , and multiple metallic arches. Several syphons and steam-driven pumps were required to keep the Appomattox afloat.[5]
  • The American ship Wyoming had a length of 100.4 meters (329.5 feet). It was built in 1909. Because of the extreme length of the Wyoming and its wood construction, it tended to flex in heavy seas, which would cause the long planks to twist and buckle, thereby allowing sea water to intrude into the hold. The Wyoming had to use pumps to keep its hold relatively free of water. In 1924, it foundered in heavy seas and sank with the loss of all hands.
  • The American ship Great Republic had a length of 101.8 meters (334 feet). It was built in 1853 and used until 1872 when it started to leak after encountering a hurricane off Bermuda and was abandoned. It had to be reinforced with steel, and included 90 steel cross braces, 4 inches wide, 1 inch thick, and 36 feet long, and metal keelsons. It was bolted together with iron bolts.[6] The MIT Museum noted that:

With this behemoth, McKay had pushed wooden ship construction to its practical limits.[7]

  • The British ships HMS Orlando and HMS Mersey had a length of 102.1 meters (335 feet). However, they were pushing the limits of what was possible in wooden ship construction:

Even the biggest of the 5,000-6,000-ton wooden battleships of the mid- to late 19th century and the 5,000-ton wooden motorships constructed in the United States during World War I did not exceed 340 feet in length or 60 feet in width. The longest of these ships, the Mersey-class frigates, were unsuccessful, and one, HMS Orlando, showed signs of structural failure after an 1863 voyage to the United States. The Orlando was scrapped in 1871 and the Mersey soon after. Both the Mersey-class frigates and the largest of the wooden battleships, the 121-gun Victoria class, required internal iron strapping to support the hull, as did many other ships of this kind. In short, the construction and use histories of these ships indicated that they were already pushing or had exceeded the practical limits for the size of wooden ships.[8]

Britain had built two long frigates in 1858 - HMS Mersey and HMS Orlando - the longest, largest and most powerful single-decked wooden fighting ships. Although only 335 feet long, they suffered from the strain of their length, proving too weak to face a ship of the line in close quarters.[9]

  • The American ship Pretoria was 103 meters (338 feet) long, 13.4 meters (44 feet) wide and 7 meters (23 feet) in depth. It was a barge built for use on the Great Lakes. To strengthen its wooden frame and hull, it included steel keelson plates, steel chords , steel arches , and also it was diagonally strapped with steel. It needed a donkey engine to run a pump to keep its interior dry. It was launched in 1900 and sunk in a storm in 1905.[10]
  • The French ship Rochambeau, formerly the American USS Dunderberg, had a length of 115 m (377.3 feet). This ship was an iron-clad wooden ship built in New York in 1865 and sold to France, which decommissioned the Rochambeau in 1874. About 50 feet of her length was a ram, so her waterline length was considerably shorter. She was not particularly stable or seaworthy, even with her substantial metal components, and only made one voyage in the open ocean to reach her new owners.
  • The French ship France II had a length of 146 meters (479 feet). The vessel had some wooden components, including wooden decks, but it had a steel hull. It was built in 1911, and went aground in New Caledonia 1922.

References

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  1. ^ Some ancient writings claim that the largest Chinese Zheng He treasure ships were more than 400 feet long, but there is no evidence for this, and these claims are disputed.
  2. ^ China To Revive Zheng He's Legend, China Daily, September 4, 2006
  3. ^ CNN WORLD REPORT: World's Largest Wooden Ship Unveiled in Kuwait, CNN Transcript, July 8, 2001.
  4. ^ Baron Renfrew Timber Ship (Timber Drogher) 1825, Library and Archives Canada, Acc. No. R9266-3280 Peter Winkworth Collection of Canadiana.
  5. ^ Wisconsin's Great Lakes Shipwrecks: Appomattox University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute and Wisconsin Historical Society, 2003
  6. ^ Great Republic, A Sailor (presumed to be Duncan McLean), Eastburn's Press, Boston, 1853
  7. ^ MIT Museum's Hart Nautical Collection Portrays the Romance and Reality of Clipper Ships: The Clipper Ship Era, A Fever for Gold, Speed, and Profit 1843-1869, September 30, 2004 — July 10, 2005; More on the history of the clipper ship: Remarkable Achievements, MIT Museum article.
  8. ^ Asia's Undersea Archeology, Richard Gould, NOVA, PBS Television article
  9. ^ HMS Warrior, h2g2, BBC Television.
  10. ^ Wisconsin's Great Lakes Shipwrecks: Pretoria University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute and Wisconsin Historical Society, 2003

Comments

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Re: France II: Should we even include this ship? It's not really wood. Orangemarlin 07:02, 2 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]
I am not sure. Some call it a wooden ship but it is not. It is large however. what is interesting is that to make it that large, they made it out of a lot of metal.--Filll 01:24, 4 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

What is interesting about all these examples is that they ALL had problems with seaworthiness problems when read the references and their histories. And all were braced with iron (except maybe the Chinese treasure ships, but those might have been mythical). --Filll 23:05, 1 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Shall we be consistent have have metric (English in parentheses)? Orangemarlin 07:01, 2 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]
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