Oak was the undisputed king of ship timber due to its strength and resistance to rot. A single 74-gun Ship of the Line required approximately , leading to massive deforestation across Europe and driving colonial expansion as nations sought new "mast ponds" for tall, straight pines and firs. Hull Assembly and Fastening Shipwrights used two primary methods for joining planks:
Decks were reinforced with heavy "knees" (L-shaped timber brackets) to withstand the violent recoil of dozens of cannons.
By the mid-19th century, the limits of wood were reached. The sheer weight of increasingly massive guns began to "hog" or "sag" wooden hulls. This led to the introduction of iron strapping and eventually the transition to all-metal hulls, marking the end of nearly four millennia of wooden shipbuilding dominance.
Overlapping planks, common in earlier Viking and medieval designs.