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Timber Shortages In The 1770s

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This essay deals with the three shortages of masts and timber in the 1770s, 1803, and 1808, and considers how the navy dealt with these shortages. In the War of American Independence and the Napoleonic Wars, the Royal Navy often faced the risk of the shortages of these goods. In the second half of the eighteenth century, Britain gained the maritime supremacy in the Atlantic and the Indian Ocean, and constructed many ships both for the navy and for the merchants. However, as Britain could not produce the sufficient quantity of naval stores in her own country, Britain depended on the import of naval stores from several areas. Masts from Norway, Russia, and New England, pitch and tar from Carolina, iron from Sweden, and hemp from Russia greatly contributed to British naval power in the long eighteenth century. The dependant position …show more content…

Although Albion’s work is comprehensive and deals with the long-term supply of woods, he pays little attention to the contribution of the Baltic masts and timber for the navy in the War of American Independence, as Knight points out. Knight, Gwyn, and Frost focus on the specific areas. Morriss pays more attention to the European situation as he focuses on oak and hemp. Crimmin deals with the only the early nineteenth century. Existing studies did not firmly draw a comparison of the measures against the timber shortages and illustrate the relationship among the navy’s attempts of the procurement of masts and timber. This essay focuses on the continuity of the measures against timber shortages and the effects of the procurement of masts and timber from one area on that from other areas. These points allow us to understand the navy’s view about the procurement of wood products in wartime of the late eighteenth and the early nineteenth

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