Transition from Wood to Iron in Shipbuilding
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ก.ย. 2024
- The transition from wooden ships to iron ships occurred over many years both in merchant and naval fleets. Iron had its obstacles to overcome, but once iron ships were readily available, they allowed for an explosion in shipbuilding technology and capability.
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Sources:
Technological Transitions and System Innovations by Frank W. Geels
Principles of Ocean Transportation by Emory Richard Johnson and Grover Gerhardt Huebner
Wessex Archaeology, wessexarch.co.uk (ss-great-britain)
The Monthly Chronicle of North-Country Lore and Legend v.1-5 by Walter Scott
GlobalSecurity.org, Metal Hull (www.globalsecu...)
www.loc.gov/it... (about this source)
The Sway of the Grand Saloon by John Malcolm Brinnin
Battle of the Monitor and Merrimack, Encyclopedia Britannica (www.britannica...)
The History of Steel, The Balance (www.thebalance...)
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Thanks for the great content. I’m going to be joining your Patreon.
Glad to hear it, Donald! And I'm glad you're getting something out of the videos. It's great to know that there are other people who share this interest of mine.
@@TheGreatBigMove i may not join but i love ships
Watching from India 🇮🇳
@@subirdebnath2519 off topic, but why is there so many scammers in India?
@@notalemon2899 unexpected but I think every country have the same thing
Great video! However, you omitted to mention one important reason why composite ships were being constructed as late as the CUTTY SARK in 1869. Wooden ships could and very often did have their bottoms coated with sheets of copper to repel barnacles, shipworms and grasses, which would -- among other things--greatly reduce the speed of the ship. However, copper sheeting could not be applied to steel or iron vessels because electrolysis would quickly destroy the iron hull. So iron hulls were only optimal for ships sailing on relatively short routes such as from Great Britain to North America, where there were shipyards where marine growth could be frequently scraped off. Copper-plated wood was preferable for ships like the CUTTY SARK , sailing on the long voyage from Canton to London. Only later in the 19th century was bottom paint containing copper particles developed, which kept off the marine growth without turning the ship's hull into a giant battery and melting the iron away. This paved the way for near-universal adoption of iron and steel for ship's hulls.
Fascinating. Thank you kindly for sharing this intelligence, aka intel. Peace!
Oh yeah! I forgot about that...
I thought it was lead paint
Really interesting, had no clue about the copper
@@alexwest2573 Thank you.
@4:50 “she battled lumber pirates of the Great Lakes” oh yea I’m gonna need a video on lumber pirates of the Great Lakes please
Gonna need a video on that too
as someone living by the great lakes I *really* want to see a video on that
Plz
I require bideo
It is amazing to think how far mankind has get, from a simple wooden cannoe to Yamato class Battleship
You can actually visit one of the last built and the last surviving wooden (3 mast) barque ship, Sigyn, that has sailed across the oceans, in Turku Finland. She made her last Atlantic crossings as a merchant ship in 1915 and 1916 and serves now as a museum ship.
Greetings from SDS Hansteen, to our knowledge the oldest seaworthy sailing steamer with 152years that was built as an iron ship from puddled wrought iron. A first norwegian research vessel used for precision mapmaking. Many present date maps still contain a lot of data provided by her. Oh and anybody you iron ship enthusiasts, if anyone knows about ship grade wrought iron hull plates, let me know, I want to give our lady the iron she lost over the century. Iron is incomparable to steel when you want to keep the vessel.
I just looked this ship up after reading your comment. Thank you for the great starting point for a ship I previously knew nothing about. May the wind fill your sails!
Carbon is what makes steel, Impurities in Iron were sulfur and phosphor
Exactly. Pure Iron (Fe) is soft but tough carbon (C) like carbon fiber's or Diamond's is Hard bot brittle, mixing it ind the right proportion get the Best of Both worlds. And if you want somthing resisten to Corrodsion you mix ind som chromium (Cr) aka stainles Steel.
To much carbon and your steel is brittle.
Hydrocarbons are impurities.
The period of the 1820s to the 1880s was the greatest leapfrog in technology in the history of mankind. And in naval terms it was a revolution every few years as something new was invented or introduced.
Love your channel sir......keep it up.
Admiral Tiberius Drachnifel made a video a on it but he does video on navy ship th-cam.com/video/IWPUloWz7gA/w-d-xo.html
@@USSAnimeNCC- I'm a huge fan of his, that's a great video
I agree but 1910 to 1970 we went from biplanes to the moon, that's a pretty big leapfrog too.
Thank God the SS Great Britan is still with us today. It was why good old Australia exists.
Does it still have its original powerplant?
@@gregorymalchuk272 IDK
Gregory Malchuk yep
@@jaysmith1408
Really? Is it a reproduction? I could swear I went out and searched the wikipedia on it and apparently some rich eccentric guy bought it in the late 1800s, removed the engines, and made it all sail. I could be wrong though.
Gregory Malchuk crap, you’re right. Missed the whole removing part. Yep, modern reproduction, sounds like it’s derated a bit too. Just found the ship’s web page.
A very interesting video, adding some ships I did not realise played a part in the change over. One bit missing I did notice however that also slowed the change to iron and steel, was the problem with temperature, being that iron became brittle over time in cold waters significantly weakening it, this delayed the change until improved metals could be found to handle the colder seas.
Such high quality videos, keep it up!
The pictures are amazing. Right?
Back when ships were made of wood and the men were made of iron.
because men are made of wood now..?
@@CARILYNF ahhh ok
@@chickenbokernot2598 they're made of tin foil now to be honest
@@x0xTHLover4Lifex0x So if I put them in a microwave?
now we have wooden men
and iron ships
These premier things are probably the most annoying things TH-cam has ever added
Chase Charron Why do the you tubers use it tho
AMEN TO THIS. Sorry but I dislike every video that uses it. Tell me to add notifications just to notify me about a video coming out later... annnnnd OFF goes the notifications.
Some people seem to like it, others don't. I might do a poll to get a sense for what the numbers are.
@@michaelhouse6606 agree, enough said...feels like these "features" are designed to be obnoxious
Ooh, video. Catchy thumbnail. Interesting topic. *Click.
"You will be reminded when it releases"
ಠ_ಠ
Excellent video. I sailed aboard the "Queen Elizabeth 2" aka QE2 I think in 1982 from NY to South Hampton GB. It was fun, I was 9 years of age and enjoyed the small arcade of coin free arcade machines. I look forward to viewing your other videos. Best wishes to you from Washington D.C.! Peace
I believe you got the steel making process wrong. Carbon is in fact added to iron, along with other metals like nickel or chromium, to produce strong, flexible steel for ship hulls. Iron by itself is very soft.
Kind of. Iron and steel are pretty much the same except for the different amounts of carbon in the material. Wrought iron (soft) has less than 0.08% carbon. Cast iron (hard) has over 4%. Steel is around 2%. Adding nickel and chromium gives you stainless steel
This video topic was proposed by one of my supporters on Patreon. If you like my videos, consider supporting the channel on Patreon and get access to extra benefits like the ability to propose and vote on topics. Once we reach our first goal, I will start uploading videos exclusively for Patreon supporters. These will be brief videos on topics which don't need a full-length video. I already have some ideas in mind! Patreon link is in the description of this video. Thanks for watching!
@Andexas o_o you said that 2 times.
Just to note, removing carbon from iron reduces it to a weaker cast iron which is purely brittle and breaks easily. the carbon in iron however creates an alloy allowing for the flexibility and greater durability in comparison to the more pure form of the element. adding elements such as nickle to the iron carbon alloy makes it more reliant. i mention this as you made a mistake when you mentioned impurities such as carbon making the material weaker. enjoyed the video though :D.
Excellent video, Thank You. I really enjoyed it. Though the creation of the Scotch Marine Boiler and the Triple Expansion Steam Engine, in the 1880's should have been mentioned. These two additional innovations, with steel construction and screw propulsion, finally made Merchant Steam ships economically competitive and superior to Auxiliary Sail/Steam ships, and traditional Sailing ships. The advent of the Steam Turbine in the 1890's and in the first decade of the 20th Century, most notably utilized in the British Navy's Dreadnoughts, was very revolutionary..
The advent of the diesel engine, first used on sea going vessels in 1912, revolutionized the merchant shipping industry. Diesel propulsion was far superior to steam in terms of economy of operation. As you already know, for decades, the Diesel Engine in the overwhelming choice of propulsion in all classes of ships, from yachts to giant cruise Ships and container ships.
8:54
The Matthew and the SS Great Britain together
makes me proud to be Bristolian
Same here!
Excellent!
I kindly request a video on the tea clippers and the races to set faster and faster times back from China. Cutty Sark was mentioned here, that sparked my comment.
The screw propeller also has a kind of medieval look, as if they are giant metal axes, symbolically chopping the ship free of the old ways and heading straight towards the future.
You have forgotten one of the biggest advantage of iron framed composite ships that by the 1830s the availability of timber for ship building was becoming a problem particularly the large timbers needed for the frame and especially the timbers with the correct shape to form the knees. This may not have been a problem in the US but it was becoming cheaper to build an iron framed ship in British yards which were building about 1 ship in 2 worldwide.
Yes, I hinted at that by saying that production of wooden ships in North America continued because of plentiful timber but you’re right I could have been more explicit about the dwindling supply in Europe. Thanks for watching
I remember Drachnifel made video about warship transistion from wood to iron I’m going to rewatch it
Another reason composite hulls were used is because on the Great Lakes, ships would sail through shallow rivers and ports and damage the keel plates. That is why composite ships were used for so long until dredging became more advanced. It is cheaper to repair a section of wood compared to a section of steel. Great video by the way!!
Much better than the Normandie topic 😜 but no, anything you make is always a pleasure to watch
Lumber pirates on the great lakes, that sounds interesting
Modern cruise ships are partially constructed out of aircraft aluminum. This allowed ships to have many decks high above the water line and not be top heavy. I think the first ship with an aluminum super structure was the SS Norway (1960-2006).
Novusod That’s a good point. So were some later ocean liners. I’m referring to the hulls at the end, though.
Maybe a video on the MV Dona Paz? (Asia's Titanic, 4,386 deaths with only 25 survivors)
I will at some point. It's on my list.
@@TheGreatBigMove Good to know. Good luck on your next project.
I have never heard the word iron so many times in a video before. Quite interesting.
This is my favorite channel.
Great video! Thank you for sharing! I like paintings showing ships at sea. For example, at 0:21.
Had a great boss that served in the Spanish Navy in the 1960's. Everyone got tired of him bragging about how great Spains Navy was. Had somebody draw a picture of an old ship then 2 pictures of him working on his great ships. One was shoveling coal into ship boiler and other repairing antique wooden deck.
Great Vid, fascinating so enjoyable.!!
To the harbor at Southampton came a stranger one fine day,
Hardly spoke to folks around him, didn't have too much to say,
Everybody asked his business when he docked right in the slip,
For that stranger there among them had an iron steamer ship!
I am surprised to find no mention anywhere here about the Star of India (of the Alaska Packer fleet) ex Euterpe launched at Ramsey, Isle of Man on November 14th, 1863. She is the oldest iron hulled ,OPERATIONAL merchantman in the world . In fact, she is worthy of a video on her own. She sails out of San Diego, Ca. as a unit of the San Diego Maritime Museum. Jerry MacMullen has written a wonderful history of her....Star of India The Log of an Iron Ship. I highly suggest everyone read it.
Man your stuff is the best
What a fantastic video! Thank you!
As always awesome work!
As a native of Virginia and a huge Civil War buff, the battle of Hampton Roads is absolutely fascinating. First thing to understand: these ships were built independently and neither side had any idea what the other was doing. It's very common in modern warfare that one side develops a new technology and has a significant advantage on the battlefield before the other side can adapt. But, in this case, both sides came up with an equally effective technology and unveiled them within a day of each other. But, in that day, the Virginia had destroyed two wooden ships and forced a third to ground to escape cannon range, emphatically establishing the iron-clad's dominance in naval warfare. And then the Monitor comes into the battle and neither ship can defeat the other. It is a literal stalemate which makes another fact very clear: one iron-clad can stand toe-to-to with another iron-clad. So, not only can an iron-clad be a very effective offensive ship against 99% of the world's naval ships of that time, it can also be a very effective defensive ship against another iron-clad. And after all that, it had no real impact on the war as a whole. Arguably one of the most important battles in terms of military technology of the Civil War was a stalemate. The Union still had their blockade and the Confederacy still controlled the inland waters.
Legend has it the first man to think of the concept of floating metal ship was laughed at
5:58 that is if you don't count the lack of her iron ram, which was lost after she rammed one of the union ships and when she backed out, she did so without the ram... there's also the fact that the virginia took a number of cannon balls to her structure, and although that did nothing to break through her seemingly impenetrable armour, it likely dented the armour every time a cannon ball successfully hit her,... (although i myself wouldn't count a couple of ugly looking dents to be ACTUAL damage...)
The Spanish ironcland frigate "La Numancia" was made the first circumnavigatino of the Earth in 1867.
Excellent!
I can't believe that they made paddle ships up to about 1860 when the first ones were sailing at about 1840 (and like double the efficiency). The paddles went 8 knots and the propeller ones went over double the speed.
Do you ever plan on talking about the Great Lakes? Such as the shipping industry in a whole, Lady Elgin, 1905 Mataafa Storm, Great Storm of 1913, Armistice Day Storm, Carl D. Bradley, Daniel J. Morrell and Edmund Fitzgerald?
just a few topic ideas.
Yes, I do plan to
@@TheGreatBigMove Awesome! That kinda stuff interests me greatly, so I genuinely can't wait for that stuff! Thank you for replying =]
You forgot to mention the Eastland and even the Atlantic, 2 prominent ship sinkings in the great lakes
@@paulinetrivago.7540 Apologies, I should've.
@@InlandSeas eh, no big deal, personally, I'd like to see him cover some west coast ships. The Columbia and Brother Johnathan to name a few. Both from California, with Columbia being a notable ship in marine history, she was the first ship to have lightbulbs as well as the first place to have Edison (I think) light bulbs outside of his place/factory/ wherever the bulbs were made at
There was a sentence I read in a book years ago that compared the rapid change in transport technology in the 19th century.
It went like this "If a person alive at the building of the pyramids was brought forward to 1805 he would see a world where to get from one location to another you either walked, rode an animal, used an animal to pull a conveyance, rowed or sailed a boat unchanged for over 4000 years! but if you where to take a person from 1805 and take him to 1925 a mere 120 years later he would be astounded at the changes"
07:58: S/S Amerika, owned by Danish shipping line Thingvalla Line. Built 1872 for White Star Line as S/S Celtic. Sold and renamed in 1893, scrapped 1898.
Great video but you failed to give a date for the launching of the ss Great Britain, the first propeller ship to cross the Atlantic. Was it about 1840?
1843, according to Wikipedia (just looked it up quickly).
@@TheGreatBigMove Thanks.
Always breaks my heart to see how much wood/trees went into building these beautiful ships.
Whoah whoah whoah. Carbon isn't an impurity to remove from iron to to make steel, it's the additive to iron that makes it steel. "Cast iron" is really just a very high carbon steel that has so much carbon that some of that carbon has precipitated out of solution, carbon lowers the melting point of steel which makes it easier to cast. The main challenge of steel making was controlling the amount of carbon and removing actual impurities like phosphorus and sulfur. For ages getting enough carbon was more of a challenge than too much.
Otherwise awesome video, love your content.
Yes, that was a mistake on my part. Every once in a while, I learn something about a topic even AFTER uploading the video thanks to my viewers. Glad you enjoyed the video anyway.
It’s so cool that the first iron ship to cross the Atlantic was powered by wind. really shows how fast technology and machines progressed once the industrial revolution got going
the service the British did for the world is indescribable. most of us would not exist today.
very cool
Fantastic as always. Great work!
Thanks, Wes!
Great video
What about the SS Great Eastern it was built so strongly it took 2 years to disassemble it
cool video, thanks for the history
Thanks, Steve
All steel contains iron, but it also contains carbon. ... The primary difference between iron and steel is that the former is a metal, whereas the latter is an alloy. Iron is simply a metal element that occurs naturally on Earth. In comparison, steel is a man-made alloy that's made by mixing iron and carbon together.Nov 27, 2019
Excellent summary. I’m not sure that you can entirely say that Great Britain was a commercial failure, though. She may have been on the North Atlantic ( possibly due in part to the cost of her recovery from Dundrum Bay) but she was successful on the Australia run and subsequently. She lasted in various service for a long time for a ship and, of course, still exists.
good stuff........put together well
Love your videos.
No mention of the Spanish ironclad Numancia (1864)? She was the first ironclad to circumnavigate the globe, thus proving the viability of ironclads for far-reaching expeditions.
Fair enough, but I was trying to keep this one concise. I think Robert Stockton crossing the Atlantic proved that iron ships could handle all the ocean could throw at them. Thanks for watching.
The Great Big Move Yes, certainly. I just thought it was a curious anecdote to include. Very good video, your channel is excellent :)
great vidio it was verey informitive
Why not have a clutch screw propeller system where you start off with a smaller propeller for trolling and then switch to a larger propeller as you reach max efficiency.
Well, good for her!
"Grea Bri'ain" The T's exist, buddy.
Seriously though good content, I enjoyed the video.
you add carbon to iron to make steel. other then that awesome video.
1:20 I know a Renown class Battlecruiser when I see one
You should do the peking
Wow can't wait to watch it
How do I support yourvPatreon ?
I think the link is in the description, but just in case it's not: www.patreon.com/TheGreatBigMove
Thanks for considering joining!
Warrior is a lit ship
Fun fact, first ever fully welded hull is still alive and well in the Gothenburg harbour (:
The worlds first fully welded ship is on the bottom of the ocean outside of San Diego, the SS Fullagar, but I would like to know what ship you're talking about if you don't mind.
Up next on shipbuilding: glass ships reinforced with steel
What about the armored danish ship “Rolf Krake” from 1863?
Trans ocean travel solely by engine did not become practical until the development of the compound steam engine in the late 1860s, what followed was a series of ships with triple reduction and even quadreduction engines that were efficient in consumption of fuel thereby allowing the vessel to not devote so much of its cargo space to fuel (coal or wood). Other developments include the use of freshwater (not sea water) in boilers significantly increasing the life of the boiler as well as the overall safety of the vessel (boiler explosions were bad) and better metals throughout the engine system allowing higher steam pressure was also a great leap in efficiency, reliability, and safety. While turbine engines used in ocean liners and warships allow high speeds, most turbines cannot be efficiently throttled for operation at lower speeds or when some of the boilers were out of service, thus these 'old fashioned' engines remained in use thru the end of the steam era on tugs, ferries, and cargo vessels where high speed was not a consideration. Even when it was many steam warships with turbines could go very fast but only for short periods while the piston engined ship could sustain moderately high speeds all day or for several days and the vessel might have a significantly longer range at more moderate cruise speeds. The reason that river boats turned to steam early in the 19th century was that they could stop every hundred miles or so to refuel and of course they used fresh water in their boilers.
Answering questions i didnt know i asked
bravo!
I keep expecting to see a kraken or giant squid in these old pictures.
Wooden ships are still the best looking
You stated @3:06; "The Robert F. Stockton. She was a miniscule ship, of less than 35 tons". 35 tons?? You MUST mean 3,500 tons🤨⁉️
No, I mean 35 tons.
Press F for Cutty Sark as she caught on fire at one point.
She's been on fire a few times :P
The shark tribe uses propellers to snare sharks
Good video but your outro is way too loud, it's like the THX thing before star wars
Thanks for the feedback--I thought the volume was good on the outro, but I'll look into it.
*Lumber Pirates* wait what?
Not only understanding and skills, but as a result: the price of the technology was low enough to change.
I had no idea iron shipbuilding started with civil vessels. I would've thought the military were the first to embrace iron hulls.
I thought the same as well
What sort of Bilge Dumping are we looking at on these old hogs..
Bruh I just came to say one thing - the ship on the cover art is Iron cast all the way through.
Except for the ones made of aluminium and fitted with jet units
A French ship with the English name 'Glory'?
me 9:09
I like ship but hate travelling using ship
Why?
@@mr.captainotter5975 can't swim
@@Warp__ Oh. That kinda sad. U no i have my own boat and my license and I 100% trust myself and my Captain if im on a ship.
@@Warp__ shut up go to the pool and Swim like a man.
@@mr.captainotter5975 your rich
Gosh I'm late.
The ships of the future will be made of plastic :p
I guess aluminum isn't strong enough for big ships, and titanium and carbon fiber are too expensive to fabricate in that size?
Aluminium is most certainly strong enough for big ships, e.g. the 130 meter LOA 32 meter beam Buquebus Incat. Done right it has the same strength as steel. The problem with aluminium is its relatively high-tech to work with. LOTS of yards can work with steel, but very few can work with aluminium. You need specialist subsets of tools, equipment, and labour; so it is more expensive.
@@darthkek1953 That makes sense -- after all, they do use aluminum for aircraft . . . so then that puts it in the same category as titanium and carbon fiber: too expensive to fabricate in that size (unless you have a military budget, like for Soviet titanium submarines).
Who else uses the videos for shipping presentations in school? I know I defo do
Arrrgh. You need to be careful with the gain setting on your microphone - this audio is also clipping, and all the way through, no less. You can boost the volume up a bit if you record too quiet, but you really can't do anything to get rid of the clipping you get from recording too hot.
Seems like you know a lot about this. I have a Blue Yeti and keep the gain knob at about 60% (in terms of position). Do you recommend something different?
@@TheGreatBigMove
It all depends on how loud you talk and how far away from the mic you are.
In your recording program, just make sure that your waveform (the graphic representation of your recorded sound) never touches or rises too close to the edge. You want your loudest recorded moment to never reach 100% loudness on that graph.
Looking around now, Bandrew has a video on it that... well, I like Bandrew, but he puts a lot of theory into his video, so I'm not sure how it will work for you: th-cam.com/video/1l86SOlxyps/w-d-xo.html .
A simple explanation is provided here, too:
th-cam.com/video/XsBgTPfTw3I/w-d-xo.html
Should you want to spend a few minutes in a call, I could share what I know in a discord or skype call, but I'm really not any kind of professional - more like a small worker bee that has managed to figure out a few things and has watched too many videos from some audio channels.
Boromir Smith That’s helpful, thank you. I don’t have a good ear for these things so I didn’t realize there were still a ton of problems.
@@TheGreatBigMove
Don't be too rough on yourself. Setting your gain cautiously is very important, yes - but the whole part of working to sound more natural and trying to say each sentence and not read it, that's just an endless journey.
Oh, right; just remembered one other good channel that may have a video on this very thing (and is nice to listen to): th-cam.com/video/QvTG15-gpy4/w-d-xo.html . (I'm not saying you are not good to listen to - you deliver the information well and without any slurs or whatnot, but I just wouldn't be myself if I didn't suggest potential for possible growth. Not every advice will fit everyone, since some person can, for example, have a style that is based on talking fast and that's what makes them sound fun - but usually slowing down a little and putting more soul into what you're reading is a safe way to go). .
Apologies for the rantiness.
There is a limit to the length of wooden ships, as they will warp and bow due to wave action. That limit is about 1/4 the length of Noah's Ark, so another myth exposed.
As a kid I thought reinforced carbon carbon would be the next step in ship building. I was wrong
Theres a T in Britian
No, there’s not.
Hogwash