Wooden Ship-Building

For anyone who is planning on building their own boat OR anyone interested in models this book will provide them with a lot of detail and give them some historical insights.

I am researching wooden shipbuilding for a novel involving 19th Century whaling in New England. This may well be the most comprehensive book on wooden shipbuilding written. It deals with the state of the art in the early 20th Century following WWI. Power tools were in use then. I treasure the book because it provides so much detail that is not found in other books, it's a textbook. As I study the subject, more and more questions arise.How was a wooden square rigger launched? Then how did they build the ways on which the keel was built and and the ship launched. If you have a keen interest in the archeology of the practical, this is as good a reference as I've found.

I was looking for photo's and information on old time wooden ship building to recreate a diorama of a ship yard. This bookgave me a lot of information.

If noah had this book I feel we would have an even more diverse array of animals on our planet! Seriously- this is a great book!

This is an excellent book for anyone interested in the construction of wooden ships. First published in 1909, this book is extremely detailed, and is loaded with ship plans, construction specifications, and technical information.Subjects covered include types of woods, ship joinery, rigging, and much more. There are numerious charts of technical information pertaining to the wide range of materials needed in wooden ship construction.Although this book was not written as a history of wooden ship building, it certainly gives insight to the industry as it once existed.

I completeley disagree with the previous review. I am speaking as a professional engineer, naval architect and a designer and builder of historic wooden ships. Perhaps it's an interesting historical reference, but that's about it. It's simply a pastiche...a picture of the USS Constitution, followed by concrete ship, then a large steam yacht, then...the battleship USS North Carolina "which mounts 10 inch guns...". As far as gaining any real knowledge about how to build a wooden ship...frankly no. The book does describe (to some degree) the large, sawn frame construction of late 19th early 20th century North American bulk carriers; however, any insights derived from it would be false. Did any of the large ships built in this way have an effective working life of more than 10 years? Are any still floating? In spite of the sister keelsons, stacked up rider keelsons, trussed keelsons, the strapping and clever keel joints, none of these vessels lasted to the present time...what does that say about the methods contained therein?Desmond's book might be fun to look through on a rainy night, but really not even worth the bandwidth to download it. Somewhat better for actual wooden ship construction is H. Cole Estep's "How Wooden Ships are Built", or Van Gaasbeek's "A Practical Course in Wooden Boat and Ship Building".