HMS Victory (Nelson's flagship)

For the HMS Victory, Lord Nelson's flagship, it took 2,100 tons of oak. It took a whole forest to build Victory. So the two uses of oak were in conflict. And now a third industry was glassmaking. To make glass you also need charcoal because you can't get all those impurities in the glass or you end up with a mess. In 1558 a law was passed forbidding the felling of trees to make coal for the burning of iron. But as with all politics, they excluded the forests of Kent and Sussex, where it really would do any good. It's like saying you're forbidden to grow corn anywhere but Iowa. Good old politicians even back then.

2100 tons of wood per ship — datum supporting the argument that warship construction was consuming forests at the same rate as the iron industry.

At the time there was a competing industry — warships, again the defense business. It took 2100 tons of wood to build the HMS Victory, which was Nelson's flagship at Trafalgar. These ships that were allowing the countries to wield their power around the globe — now they knew the globe was round — took a whole forest to build one ship. In fact we still have that problem. The best wood — if you looked on those Ashby-type plots that have wood on there — anybody know what Old Ironsides is made out of, what type of wood? Red oak?

The HMS Victory, Nelson's flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar, contained 2,100 tons of oak. The USS Constitution — anyone want to know why she's called Old Ironsides? Because she's made with North Carolina white oak. North Carolina white oak is one of the strongest woods in the world, and that's why the cannonballs would bounce off her sides. When they have to repair her, it takes the US Navy — she's still a commissioned ship in the US Navy, the oldest one — it takes the US Navy about twenty or thirty years to come up with enough North Carolina white oak to repair it. It's still a problem.

2,100 tons of oak in the final ship; "probably took two or three times that for all the shavings."

The iron industry grew, and it generated not only trade but conflict. The forests of Britain had long been admired for their most celebrated inhabitants — slow-growing and long-lived, these were the mighty oaks. For centuries they had provided the wooden walls of old England, and the castles. The Royal Dockyard was in Portsmouth. To make the H.M.S. Victory, Nelson's flagship at Trafalgar, took 2,100 tons of oak — and that's the final product, it probably took twice that — and that's just what went into the ship. It probably took two or three times that for all the shavings you had to cut away to make things the right shape. A whole forest. So the two uses of oak were in conflict — to make charcoal and to make ships. And now a third industry came along — glass-making. To make glass you need a very clean source of fuel, which means you need more charcoal — you need to cut down more forests.