I agree there exists a decided limit, who decided and when and why those old conditions (like the nonexistence of epoxy, fiberglass, many other synthetics, internet at sea) should apply today is what I disagree with. I'm sure there are some 50 year old wood/epoxy composites floating around by now. But forget all that, it does bring material cost up to $200/ton minimum. Have you ever seen you tube videos of ship scrap yards in India where they drive 15-40 year old ships up onto the beach as far as they will go? Well here is a short story of what you can do in a country where they still believe that if there is a will there is a will there is a way, still.
One day a ship scrapping foreman got so sick of threatening his workers with starvation and extra unpaid work just so his brother-in-law could underbid his nephew on the next scrap out, he came up with a practical solution. He came up with the idea encasing one of those beasts with a very weak beach sand /cement mold 1/2 way up the waterline and build a scrap hauling ship from scratch. Why should he have to know how to build something that costs a zillion rupees, all he has to do is believe... He went partners with his wife and nephew and became "boss". A couple of old buses drive up one wagging a huge cement mixer being rolled over small logs because the "boss" don't want to waste money on a trailer for it. 4 months later 80 workers are camped out inside the "mold" 700ft x 100 ft( the last 200 ft of junk ship was too far in the water still) next to a pile of 40,000 tons of scrap steel. Also the cement mixer, 1/3 of the bamboo in the surrounding 100 km^2, 500 drums of creosote/heavy oil,and 80,000 sacks of Type II, and a mysterious bin of tangled up long green plastic strap. The nephew, who was upset at his father who had steered him into this deal, and who was out the quarter million dollars cash for the pre-panama enlargement tanker, set a time limit of 3 months to completion. Otherwise he would sell the steel and no one would be paid. So "the "boss" got started right away. After boiling 75% of the water out of the bamboo in a tank of creosote, the canes of all different sizes were set in a continuously poured slurry of "aircrete". Layer by layer of bamboo was bundled in 7 roughly equivalent diameter pieces and strapped securely into 700 ft lengths , often it was just tied with nylon and pinned to its neighbor with electric drill and bamboo carved dowels, as many as all the workers' kids could make between constant snacks and fighting with the bamboo. Each "layer" was forced down into the wet(extremely slow drying) slop below by strapping it between the previously strapped cross bracing below(thinner canes) and the new from above. Although "boss" went cheap and dedicated two workers to hand splitting the mysterious green plastic (imported polyester lumber strap detoured from recyclers before chopping them into flakes) into thirds, he did his best to make sure as little as possible of the bamboo could be dislodged by walking and jumping on everything he could. Too make a long story shorter...
The 16,000 ton , 16lbs/ft^3, 80/20 "fiber" to "resin" ratio (maybe a few more voids than he thought) full scale model 740L x 106W x 28"H" ship shape raft was completed in less than 2 months. "boss" had to sell about 1000 tons or so of the scrap steel under his nephew's nose at local pricing of $40/ton to keep everyone paid/fed/happy, and square the books on material purchases with his father-in-law. But he did manage to outfit the new ship with a propulsion system from the 600hsp aux generator, shaved prop, shaft, crane, anchor chain and windlass (for those of you who still drag anchor chains across wooden rub rails - they make smaller versions) from the scrap pile, kind of Thailand river boat style hanging off the transom. He loaded it to within 4 feet of "freeblock", with the understanding of its "unsinkable" nature. He "set sail for China" with #200 55 gal drums of fuel, sold the remaining 38,000 tons in Shanghai and purchased 10,000 tons of cement loaded extra heavy into 80 shipping containers Pocketed his 3 1/2 million and change topped of his fuel drums. No one there mentioned SOLAS or IMO, even when he had to return to port and buy another 1/2 million dollars of "cement ballast" because his ship was rolling uncomfortably outside the harbor. A little better now the "boss" mused, but still dangerously HIGH on her lines...He would stick to the coast and venture to Vietnam to seek bamboo. He would turn his into a real ship with outriggers and floats...or maybe just saw it in half and lash some beams across the two decks...
I haven't heard from the "boss" lately. I'm sure he did not sink. Maybe he was "eliminated" for dropping too many containers at once into the ocean (uninsured). Can't say. I can say with fair certainty the his ship would not ever have broke up and if it did jump way out of the water and land on a pointy iceberg...or get hit by a meteor... the two halves are still there...floating. It is estimated from section modulus that a ship that size and thick and using a single point load amidship suspended by static reaction forces at both ends, depending on how much rhum and beer that crew consumed while constructing it, would have a built in safety factor of 50-100 instead of 3 for steel of the same weight. 40-50 psi strain vs 2,000 - 5,000 for the bamboo/aircrete composite. And that is not even a fair comparison because steel ship designers use distributed loads and allow for plastic deformation in their calcs. I've never put a boat (including a 70 footer LWL 67, newspaper full of **** same as district attorney, -motored to CNMI 2003 -multiple news rags -"six Pinoys Saipan" including my wife/son/2 brother in-laws,chief carpenter and diesel mechanic- all with passports - AG Fat Turd told me "We can't allow this" - Filipino tourists at the time were allowed but only for use as servants and approved by governor apparently) in the water that I didn't jack the bow up and measure ZERO sag.
I don't think original poster is alive or interested in wood ships anymore...maybe. But I'm done telling "wild stories" here. Wan't a 400 ft aircraft carrier for $200,000.00 - I'm in the yellow
pages...chinaseapirate@yahoo.com. Otherwise, I'm done here. Pretty much the exact responses I expected. My fault..I was trolling for answers as to see if there really was a "structural limit" to the length of a ship. I already know that most wood BY WEIGHT is stronger and all woods BY WEIGHT are stiffer than steel. If YOU don't...well build yourself a bridge over an 18 ft crocodile pit. You get 4 sticks of 20 ft rebar. I'll be waiting on the other side of my (4)2x6 with my motorcycle I drove across. You want 100 sticks or whatever ABYC calls for and a welder? Then I get to glue or lash and the same number of sticks. I'll have an army across before you find electricity. By the way, you can anchor a 70 foot trimaran on a reef with a 10" Rapala lure and 150 lbs test mono 95% of the time, no need to wear out the rub rail.
Why are "truly large" wooden ships uncommon?
