Largest Wood Ship Ever Built!

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Since I was a kid and read the Hornblower series among other books, I have had an interest in wooden sailing ships.

It seems they always were rather leaky affair, especially the large ones built for speed like the clipper ships, the Flying Cloud being among the most famous.

The bows of those ships took a real pounding, forcing crews to regularly shore up as it were the forward timbers. Bilge pumps were often in constant use. Tar and canvass was handy to plug leaks.

I'd never read of the Wyoming but it seems like one of those attempts to keep alive an industry no longer needed in a world
of metal ships.
 
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My Uncle Vernon went to war over 80 years ago on a 103 foot long wooden ship...The officers and crew made their way from San Diego to New Zealand, back up through the Solomons chain, across to Okinawa via Guam, then safely to San Francisco by way of Pearl Harbor...All on a wooden ship powered by a Detroit Diesel engine...

He's pictured below on the ship's deck on the cover of the only book ever published containing the history of these ships...:cool:...Ben

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Truckman said:
My Uncle Vernon went to war over 80 years ago on a 103 foot long wooden ship...The officers and crew made their way from San Diego to New Zealand, back up through the Solomons chain, across to Okinawa via Guam, then safely to San Francisco by way of Pearl Harbor...All on a wood.
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Smaller wooden hulled ships were very common during WWII,
notably the minesweepers which were around 130 feet.
 
The APc was originally a coastal minesweeper design, and subsequently a large batch were laid down as coastal transports after a need was seen for such a vessel in the island hopping campaigns of the Pacific. - per Wikipedia
 

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I've been to the Maine Maritime Museum and the adjoining remains of the shipyard where the Wyoming was built in Bath, ME. In the spot where the ship was built is a pipe-skeleton sculpture outlining its dimensions. The deck was 50' above the ground. Breathtaking amount of woodwork...
 
The story of the Wyoming points up the limitations in size a wooden ship can face for durability and longevity.

But many smaller ships had hardy histories and even circumnavigated the world. Cases in point were the British 80-some foot transports Endeavor, Beagle and the Bounty. They certainly earned their place in history.

(Edited to correct that Cook was aboard the Endeavor, the Beagle was an earlier far ranging research ship that carried Darwin and of course Bligh commanded the Bounty.)
 
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