to make its use undesirable. A great deal of this timber was utilized during the twenty years following 1840 in Navy vessels, steam propellers, and large clipper ships, particularly in the bows and sterns. Two large vessels have been built on Long Island within the last five years with live-oak frames, but experience has proved that vessels into which this wood enters to any considerable extent are inferior cargocarriers. Live-oak vessels have, as a rule, changed hands faster than those built of any other wood. There is agood deal of this timber left in Florida, but no one wants it. Speaking in a general way, it must be admitted that the supply of valuable shipbuilding timber on the Atlantic coast has been materially impaired by the past two centuries of steady pillaging; and it is diminishing now so fast that wooden ships are likely to rise materially in price in the course of the next twenty years. If relief is to be looked for from any quarter, it is probable that it will come from the far Northwest, on the Pacific coast. Washington Territory and Oregon, west of the Cascade Mountains, are covered with the heaviest continuous belt of forest growth now existing in the United States, and perhaps in the world. Perhaps the single exception to this remark is the magnificent redwood belt of the California ranges. Nine-tenths of the forests first named are the yellow or red fir. There is a valuable cedar, and several varieties of pine are scattered among the firs; there are also hemlock, spruce, a poor quality of oak, and some laurel. The tide-land spruce of that region makes excellent knees, and the laurel supplies stem pieces and other parts of the ship for which hard wood is positively required. The fir is valuable for all the rest of the ship. The trees grow to gigantic size, being from 150 to 300 feet in height, with the trunk from 5 to 8 and even 10 feet in diameter. They grow so straight that the lumbermen often fail, even with the aid of a plumb-line, to discover the slightest deflection from a true perpendicular. The wood is lighter and coarser grained than white oak, but is as strong, elastic, and tough as oak, and when cut at the right season of the year is equally as durable. This timber first came to the notice of the officers of the United States Navy more than thirty years ago. One or two war vessels having been sent into Puget Sound to protect the settlers from the Indians, the officers were captivated with the timber, growing as it did from the water's edge as far inland as the eye could reach, and running up even on the sides of the colossal peaks of the region. Word being sent to Washington that it seemed desirable to test the qualities of the wood for ship-building, Admiral Farragut caused a quantity of it to be sent to the navy-yard near San Francisco and special tests to be made, with a view to ascertaining the size of scantling required to construct a vessel of fir having the same strength as though it were built of Eastern white oak. Specifications for the sloop-of-war Manzanita were prepared from the results of these experiments. The fir was tested both there and at various Eastern yards, and found to be a satisfactory material for wooden vessels. The following is an extract from a report by Constructor George W. Much, of the United States Navy, in January, 1879, to Rear-Admiral Rodgers, on this subject: "In compliance with Bureau order of October 12, 1878, to furnish the information required in your letter of October 3, 1878, relative to amended specifications for building the screw-steamer Manzanita with the Atlantic coast wood crossed out; also, whether the carbolized laurel in the yard schooner Freda remains perfectly sound, &c., I have the honor to report that upon the receipt of the order I instituted inquiries as to the best Pacific coast and other woods that could be obtained in San Francisco for ship-building purposes, and by the information received from old settlers, timber-dealers, vessel-owners, ship-builders, shipwrights, and others conversant in timber and timber material, find from their experience that there is no material on this or the Atlantic coast better adapted for outside and inside planking, for keels, keelsons, clamps, bilge strakes, knees, and breast-hooks than the Washington Territory yellow fir, or yellow Oregon pine. It has also been adopted for frame timber in all vessels built on the coast for the last ten years, and so far with good results, and I have therefore adopted it in the specifications." The Washington Territory yellow fir or Oregon yellow pine can be readily procured, free from sap or other defects, of any desired size up to 90 feet in length, is in strength fully equal to Atlantic coast white oak, and has fully the same tenacity to hold fastening, and never becomes iron sick as it does when corroded by the acid contained in white oak. The great length of the Washington Territory yellow fir saves to the ship-builder in fastening butts and scarfs and gives greater elasticity to the hull, and consequently diminishes the danger of springing a leak. Owing to the straight growth of this timber, there are comparatively but few natural crooks, but by judicious and careful selection the proper growth or shape could be obtained from the larger trees, and, if they were not readily found, the sharper floors, futtocks, and hooks could be built in the same manner as those built at this yard for the United States schooner Freda. For mast and spar timber the Washington Territory yellow fir has no superior. 5556 NAV-21 Shipwrights and ship-builders of this coast, from their experience in repairs to sail and steam vessels, fully indorse the lasting qualities of this wood. Innumerable instances might be given of vessels built on this coast constructed entirely of Washington Territory yellow fir. Some of them built as early as 1857 are still remaining perfectly sound, strong, and staunch. The length of the fir timber is a strong point in its favor, as from trees 300 feet in height sticks of any required length can be obtained, while on the Atlantic coast oak and hard wood cannot be bought of a greater average length than 45 feet. Plank and logs of 60 feet are costly and hard to get. On the other hand, in the yellow-fir region, logs for keels, keelsons, and planking can be obtained of any length that the saw-mills can handle. Keel and keelson pieces from 110 to 120 feet in length are habitually used. In the transfer steamboat Solano, of 3,549 tons, built at Oakland in 1879 and 1880, keelson pieces were used 150 feet long and 24 inches square without a particle of sap, rent, or check, and sound, straight, and free from knots and defects of every kind. In the curved parts of frames no longer sticks can be employed than in the Eastern yards, but in all the longitudinal pieces of the ship, upon which the rigidity of the hull depends, the builders find it convenient to use stuff of an average length of 90 feet, and can get all they want of it without extra cost. The long stuff is preferred because it gives strength and elasticity to the ship, and because it saves much labor in construction, owing to the fewer number of butts. Professor Sargent says that any estimate of the actual amount of timber standing in the Territory is scarcely possible with the existing knowledge of the country; but the area of the forests is enormous, and the quantity of timber to the acre is remark. able. One estimate of the quantity of timber standing, apparently an extravagant one, makes it equal to the whole amount of the wood cut in the United States from the first settlement down to the present time. An important fact about the Pacific fir is that it reproduces itself so fast in its rainy home that it can be made to last almost indefinitely. A large number of coasting vessels have been built out of Pacific coast fir, and several ships have been constructed for the grain trade with Liverpool. There was a great difference in the length of time for which these vessels respectively lasted. Some speedily decayed, others were sound after twenty years' use, and builders were for a few years greatly puzzled to account for this phenomenon; but attention has been called of late to the time of year at which the timber for the different vessels was cut, and it is now believed that the trouble in the cases of early decay arose entirely from using summer-cut trees. Builders intend hereafter to select fall and winter cut timber for their vessels, and the experts of the Pacific coast believe that fir felled when the sap is out of the wood, and salted after being put into the vessel, will last as long as white oak. The cost of fir will also have some bearing on the question of iron or wood as a material for sailing vessels. As long as it can be bought for $10 and $12 per thousand board feet, or less than $25 or $30 a thousand, while iron costs anything like present prices, the wooden ship will be a cheaper vessel than one of iron. The following is a statement of the specific gravities and weights of the ship-building woods of the United States, prepared for this report by Prof. C. S. Sargent, of Brookline, Mass., chief special agent in charge of forestry statistics of the census of 1880: These are the weights of absolutely dry woods; for woods used for ordinary industrial purposes an addition of from 10 to 15 per cent. should be made for moisture remaining in the wood. For ship timber the weights should be corrected by adding about 25 per cent. For instance, white oak partially seasoned weighs on the average 56 pounds per cubic foot, and yellow fir 42 pounds per cubic foot in the ship-yard. Constructor Samuel H. Pook, of the United States Navy, has supplied the followlowing data of actual weights of woods in the ship-yards: White oak Pitch pine White pine Spruce Maple... Beech.. Live-oak Hackmatack Chestnut Hemlock.. Sycamore White holly.. Cypress.. Weight per cubic foot in pounds. |