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Teakwood in Shipbuilding
For generations,
teakwood has been the favored wood for shipbuilding, furniture making, and in
the construction of homes.
To fully understand the popularity of teakwood,
let’s first explore its history. For generations, teakwood has been the favored
wood for shipbuilding, furniture making, and in the construction of homes. The
reason for this is because of its durability, water-resistance, as well as its
resistance against insects.
The Chinese used teakwood to build their ships. Part of the process was to bury
the wood for several years in moist soil, which made the wood almost impervious.
During the Ming dynasty, the Chinese attempted to sail to the edge of the world
and ended up circumnavigating the world many times. It has been surmised that
their expedition was what brought attention of teakwood to other cultures.
The British naval ships for years had been crafted from another very durable
wood, oak. However, oak would encounter problems with woodworms, which were
actually destroying the entire British Fleet. To further complicate the problem,
the oak supply in Europe was quickly being depleted. The British were aware of
teakwood and its durability and how rugged it made the Chinese ships. These
ships were impervious to all of the elements of the sea, wind, sun, saltwater,
in addition, it was also resistant to woodworms, and the wood did not splinter
when fired upon by enemy gunfire or artillery. This added bonus was also very
important to the British Navel because the majority of their casualties occurred
do to the splintering of the ships wooden hauls, and decks during battle.
Britain first looked into growing and producing this wood product, but soon
realized that all they had to do was annex the countries that grew the teakwood.
This is not however, the only reason why Britain colonized and annexed these
areas. Like the Oaks, Britain soon depleted the Teak trees in Myanmar, Yangoon,
and Calcutta. Once the Teak was depleted from India, the British began to
harvest logs from Thailand and Burma.
Teakwood soon became the preferred wood for shipbuilding, and furniture. The
wood shrunk very little, was resistant to warping, and required very little
maintenance. In addition it was impervious to and insects. The British used more
than one thousand tons of teakwood to build the ocean liner Queen Mary. It
wasn’t long before the British government realized that the teak forest were
vanishing and soon developed a re-forestation plan. Teak trees were soon being
replanted on Teak plantations. The British also passed and enforced strict laws
governing who could cut a Teak Tree down, export it, and purchase teakwood.
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