Many people think that the race to build bigger and bigger ships is a relatively new thing. Nothing could be further from the truth. Man probably started out riding a floating log. He might have gone next to a raft made of a couple of logs and then to some kind of canoe or small boat. Then for many thousands of years boats looked more or less like large rowboats. Most had oars with either volunteers or slaves rowing them. Some were assisted by a sail and in time just about all became sail assisted. As the centuries churned on, the boats leaned more and more toward wind power and less to oar power and eventually the oars disappeared, leaving only sails. The wooden sailing ships were quite small by our standards.

In 1638 King Charles I insisted that he wanted the biggest and grandest wooden ship ever built and he commissioned the “Sovereign of the Seas”. It was built by Phineas Pett and was the greatest known warship ever built up to that time. She was armed with 102 bronze guns and was powered by three main masts of sails and several smaller spars. This ship was truly huge for its time, being 212 feet long with a beam of 48 feet and a depth of over 19 feet. It weighed in at 1,605 tons and held a crew of 815. The average ship of the day had 40 guns and cost about 6,080 pounds to build. The Sovereign of the Seas cost 65,585 pounds to build, which was almost 11 times as much. The ship remained in service for 59 years and in that time was renamed as Sovereign and then Royal sovereign. In 1697 a fire burned the ship down to the waterline. She was the second first-rate three decker ever built at that time, the first being the Prince Royal in 1610. In 1577 the Revenge was built and provided a deck devoted entirely to broadside guns which the Sovereign utilized.

Another great wooden ship was built in 1627 and named the Vasa. It was built in Sweden and was huge by the standards of the day. It is estimated that the ship was 1,200 tons, 230 feet long, had a 38 foot beam and was 172 feet high. Its draft was 16 feet. It had a crew of 445, including soldiers and contained 13,720 square feet of sail. Its armament was 64 guns. I would like you to take special notice of the ship's height. The reason that I point this out to you, is the fact that the ship sailed about one mile before sinking. It was totally unstable and top heavy and just turned over. An inquiry was launched immediately, but no one was ever blamed for this disaster. The King, Gustavus Adolphus was aboard the ship when she sank. He did everything he could to rush the ship's construction so that it could take part in the 30 year war. The ship was recovered in 1961 and the remains of at least 15 people were found along with many artifacts that were common to Sweden the the early 17^th century.

Two hundred years earlier the English had built a giant ship named Grace Dieu. It was the flagship of Henry V of England. The ship was built of a special design where planks would overlap increasing the overall strength of the boat. This method is called clinker building and sometimes lapstake and is the same method used by the Vikings. The ship was finished in 1418. It was 218 feet long and weighed 1,400 tons. An incredible feat for the day. Historians believe that the ship, along with two escort ships that were built to accompany her, sailed but one time. A mutiny erupted and the flotilla had to divert to St. Helens on the Isle of Wright. A bolt of lightning hit her, set her on fire and that was the end of her. She did not have a very distinguished career, or any career at all for that matter.

I would be remiss if I didn't talk about the two Roman ships that were built around 37 AD by Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, more commonly known as Caligula. Caligula decided he wanted to build two huge ships. The slightly larger one was used as a floating palace and the slightly smaller one as a temple to Diana. The ships were built so that Caligula could travel across Lake Nemi to worship at a temple on the other side. These are said to be the two biggest ships ever built in the ancient world. The bigger of the two is said to have been 229 feet long and had a beam of over 59 feet. When the hull of one of the ships was found, archaeologists were in disbelief. They had thought that the ancients were incapable of building anything like this. There are stories of even greater wooden ships that were built in Greece in 200 BC, but this has never been verified. One ship that was spoken about was the Tessarakonteres. Supposedly it was 430 feet long and had a 58 foot beam and was powered by over 4,000 men rowing. That must have been some sight. There are also several others I could cite, but since they are unconfirmed I will skip them.

HMS Victory

While not the biggest of the wooden ships, the HMS Victory, which was built between 1759 and 1765 is the oldest commissioned ship in service in the British Navy and can be seen in dry dock in Portsmouth England. It has been turned into a museum. While not the biggest wooden ship, she is still huge. Her length is over 227 feet with a beam of almost 52 feet. She needs almost 29 feet of water and carries 6,510 square yards of sail. It took about 850 men to sail her. She carried 102 guns and her oak hull was 2 feet thick at the waterline.

The biggest wooden vessel ever to be built is believed to be the Wyoming, which was launched in 1909. It was 450 feet long with a beam of 51.1 feet. It sunk in 1924. It weighed 3,730.54 tons and still used sail on that late date. It had six masts and could hit top speeds of 18 mph and only required a crew of 14. The ship had a problem. It tended to flex in heavy seas due to its wood construction and extreme length for that type of construction. Pumps were required to be run most of the time since the flexing would allow sea water to get into the hold. This ship was pine, not oak and needed iron cross braces and had 90 of them on each side. The reason such a small crew could sail her was the fact that a donkey steam engine was used to raise and lower sails and a Hyde anchor windlass was used to lower and raise the anchor. The ship cost $175,000 in 1909.

So you see, the race today to build bigger and bigger steel ships is nothing new, it had been going on with wooden ships for thousands of years.