World’s Largest Wooden Ships
Ships we all have seen then since childhood. Many of us must have had one in the toys that we have played with while growing up. Well ships play a vital role in world trade and also in international relationships. All countries do have their own shipping lines. Originally ships were made of wood. However, as technology improved the ships also transformed. Now days they are made of iron as they carry huge bulk of cargo from one part of the other. The original ships that were made of wood can now be found in museums. We will now discuss about the world’s largest wooden ships. I am sure you will enjoy this interesting article and also get to know more about the various worlds’ largest wooden ships. We will discuss them on the basis of their sizes starting from the biggest to the smallest wooden ships.
We have considered the overall length to list the world’s largest wooden ships. If we consider length to be the then the name that tops the list is Wyoming of New England. The ship was one hundred and thirty seven meters in length. This is still under construction. It is being built in the Dream ship victory shipyard located in Turkey.
Well Noah’s Ark might have been the biggest wooden ship that was built ever in order to save the animals and plants after the great flood that destroyed the earth and created a new world. In the modern times the worlds’ largest wooden ships would include the name of Bounty that was built in 1960 and it sailed till 2012 as it was destroyed by the hurricane Sandy that just hit Unites states of America. It had a length of one hundred and eighty feet.
The second on the list of worlds’ largest wooden ships would be the very famous HMS surprise that was built with an original length of almost fifty five meters. It was originally built in the year 1970. It did feature in many movies. In 2007 it was sold to the maritime museum of San Diego. It was last seen in the movie pirates of the Caribbean: on stranger tides. A Swedish warship named Vasa was built in 1628. It was about forty eight meters in length. It sank on its first voyage like the Titanic. The reason was that a gale forced water into the ship. Another Swedish ship named Mars was rediscovered in 2011. It was forty eight meter in length when originally built. It had one hundred and seven guns. It is belived to have sunk in 1564 during a battle.
If length is the criteria for the list of the worlds’ largest wooden ships then the next name that comes to my mind is of the Peter Von Danzing. It was built by the French. The trace of this goes way back in 1462. It was decommissioned in 1470 after it had undertaken many voyages abroad. It was mostly used as a warship. The length of this ship was about fifty one meters. Another ship that was about fifty eight meters in length and was constructed in 1814 is what we will be discussing now. It was called HMS St Lawrence. It was constructed in Canada. It was built during the world war. It was later transformed into a storage hulk due to its huge capacity. It sunk in 1815.
A four Decker ship that was one of its kinds to be ever built was constructed in 1769. It is unbelievable that centuries ago they tried to build a ship that was of four decks. It was named Santísima Trinidad. It had one hundred and thirty six guns. It was about sixty meters in length. Soon after the battle it sank. In the year 1829 a ship named Mahmudiye was built. For many years it was the largest warship the world had ever seen. It had three decks. It was sixty two meters in length. It was armed with one hundred and twenty eight cannons. The ship was a part of many naval wars. In the year 1975 it was decommissioned. Later it was disassembled and the parts were sold.
When we discuss the world’s largest wooden ships we must mention the USS Constitution. It was built way back in 1797. It is about two hundred and four feet long. It is still going strong in spite of so many years that have gone by since it was manufactured. It was the second largest commissioned warship ever. It is the oldest wooden ship that is in great condition and it can still hit the high seas even in the twenty first century. It is kept in the museum but it is in operational condition no doubt.
There are some more ships that can be included in this list. The first one is Orient. This was a French ship. It had one hundred and eighteen guns. The ship was destroyed by a fire during the battle of the Nile. It was a long as sixty six meters. HMS victory is a one hundred and four guns ship. It was in the lines of the Royal Navy. It is the oldest ship that is still in commission. It was built in 1765 and was about seventy meters in length. Nevertheless, it is still in prime of its conditions.
HMS Sovereign of the Seas was built in England to safeguard the reputation of the English crown. It was a three Decker ship. Basically a war ship and it did participate in many wars. However, later one deck was removed as ship would not get balanced. It was burned later by mistake. Adler von Lübeck was the largest ship of its time. Built in 1567 the ship was seventy eight meter long. It featured one hundred and thirty eight guns. It could hold six hundred and fifty mariners at a given time. It was disassembled in the year 1988. We end the list with the name of William D. Lawrence. It was the largest wooden sailing boat that was ever built in Canada. It was about two hundred and sixty feet long. It was around 1891 converted to a barge and later it sank.
These are the various worlds’ largest wooden ships that we know of based on their sizes. These have laid the foundation for the modern ships that we know of. Perhaps we have missed some ships that were better contenders to be on this list. It is difficult to get the details of all the ships but still be having tried to give you a brief preview of the most famous ships.
