This avoided galvanic corrosion of the fasteners. On older vessels, wooden pins known as “treenails” were used instead of metal fasteners. Fasteners like this were used to assemble large parts, like the keel. Three curved wooden ribs with some outer hull planking still attached, protruding from the sand on the “Middle Barge.” Large ( 3-4 foot ) copper drift pins exposed by separating timbers on the Delaware. Framing elements were usually of oak, while planking was more commonly pine. Critical joints are reinforced with “hanging” knees, and the fasteners used are of similar materials to those described above, but smaller. The inner surface of the vessel is covered with thinner planking known as “ceiling.” A large longitudinal timber running around the inside of the hull called the “shelf” carries the transverse deck beams, which are supported along the centreline by stringers and stanchions extending upward from the keelson. The outer surface of the vessel is sheathed with heavy wooden planking and waterproofed with caulk, a mixture of tar and hemp called “oakum”. The ribs are carried at their bases by the “floors”. Floors protruding from under the keelson, on the “Middle Barge.”īelow is a drawing of a typical wooden ship side and deck construction. ) the keelson also carried the lower ends of the masts in sailing vessels. A scarf joint is apparent as the diagonal line in the keel above, and also in the assembly detail of the “floors.” Especially high-stress areas, such as the bow and stern, are reinforced with large wooden “knees” and other reinforcing pieces ( not shown. Assemblies that were either too large or too oddly shaped to be cut from a single piece of wood were built up using scarf joints – diagonal joints that spread stresses across a larger area than a simple butt joint. The bow of a wooden vessel is built up around the curved stem, while the stern is built up around the sternpost. Rather, its purpose is to protect the keel from wood-boring organisms and accidental groundings, and also to provide lateral resistance in the water so the ship will track straight in a crosswind. ) the false keel is generally not a load-bearing structure. Below the keel, most vessels also have a “false keel” ( not shown. The keelson provides additional strength and stiffness to the keel and floors. The keelson is mounted atop the floors, sandwiching them into an extremely strong structure. The floors carry the vessel’s ribs, shown below. Attached transversely to the keel at regular intervals are angled assemblies known as “floors”. The illustration above shows most of the basic components of a wooden ship’s frame. However, most wooden ships are built using a basic framing system that has changed little over the centuries. The ancient Greeks stitched the planks of their warships together edgewise to form an extremely light frameless load-bearing shell, much like a modern airplane fuselage. Around the world, many different construction techniques have been used, some of them quite extraordinary. Wooden ships have been constructed for thousands of years. Wooden Ship Construction Wooden Ship Framing