Constitution Grove – the Navy’s White Oak Forest on a High Tech Base (2020)

Granted, it's a very special ship.

And 50,000 acres of forest is its own reward.

The New College At Oxford story of replacing the oak beams in the dining hall is more fact than legend (though it's usually told in a very Just-So way that's a little too tidy), and it's not alone in this sort of husbandry: https://blog.longnow.org/02014/12/31/humans-and-trees-in-lon...

I was under the impression that the USS Constitution was made of southern live oak (and that the US Navy had tracts of it in the southern US).

Turns out that it’s true, the “frame” is made of southern live oak. I guess the rest of it is white oak.

EDIT - there is also a strange story about the Naval Live Oaks site near Pensacola, Florida. It was established to provide live oak timber for the Navy but after WWII they finally decided they didn’t need it any more. They gave it to the state of Florida with the express limitation that it had to be managed as parkland and could only be used for public purposes.

So… decades later the National Park Service is establishing the Gulf Islands National Seashore and wants the Naval Live Oaks land back. Florida says no. An “enterprising” US Attorney finds an old newspaper article about a circus that came to Pensacola in the summer time and the elephant died. Well, they needed a place to bury it and chose the Naval Live Oaks area. The feds sue Florida and claim that an elephant burial ground is not a public purpose. The judge agrees and the land ownership reverts back and becomes part of the national seashore.

https://www.pnj.com/story/news/local/2020/12/29/gulf-islands...

White oak is used specifically in preference to red oak because the white oaks (a bunch of species, not just Quercus alba, are considered white oak) have tyloses blocking the pores in the wood. The red oaks (ditto) do not. The fact that white oak is also fairly decay resistant probably has something to do with this as well.

A neat parlor trick is to take a bit of red oak, put one end in your mouth, the other in a glass of water and blow bubbles.

This is also why white oak is famously used for whiskey barrels and other tight cooperage (vessels holding liquids), and red oak is used for slack cooperage (vessels that don't hold liquids).

My partner had a hard time believing me when I told them England was denuded of trees to build their navy. One of the advantages during the Revolutionary War for the Colonies was the hardness of the oak wood that could still be found. I guess we should be happy/lucky there was still enough left for Old Ironside.

Not so fast: "One hundred and fifty white oak trees spread over the 64,000-acre base were designated for Constitution"

An exciting vacation would be to put out at sea with a few dozen of your compatriots on an oak sailing vessel (brig, cutter, sloop, bark, schooner, etc). The cargo manifest necessary to accommodate our modern existence would consist of the "saftey" of last-resort amenities like durable fiberglass lifeboats, a diesel propulsion engine, global communication access, fuel, emergency rations, and a quality water filtration system (easily recharged by activated charcoal) - but the shared adventure would be cooperation with the wind&stars to navigate the dominant surface area travel medium of Sol-3.

Manually hoisting the sails&anchor to participate in the traditional routines of the classical sailor would justify the communal protein-rich Feast at sunset. You would not need to drink alcohol all day to avoid the effects of water-borne illness (unless Challenge Accepted), nor face the pains of the commonly contracted vitamin-C deficient Scurvy of Yesterday.

The fellowship required to travel by sea via human labor&ingenuity would be far more pleasurable than the solitude of energy spent in a weight-lifting room of a hotel along the generic "beach-front resort" where conventional citizens Stay-For-A-Week-or-Three while encountering generic go-cart or water park "adventures" while consuming the "expensive" meals of a static location (prices set by the Absence-of-the-Fearful-Rent-Seeker).

Should we do this more often to help try and save our planet (and have some great forestland for people to enjoy?). Seems like a great move.

If I remember correctly, the ultimate in luxury flooring is milled from oak submerged for hundred of years underwater.

How many acres of trees does it take to become a "forest" and not a "grove"?

Sweden had a similar idea. https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/visingso-oak-forest

To answer the obvious Ship of Theseus question:

"According to the Naval History and Heritage Command Detachment Boston, today's U.S.S. Constitution maintains about 10 to 15 percent of its original wood, including the lower futtocks, keel and the deadwood at the stem and stern."

https://www.seaportboston.com/faq/uss-constitution/how-much-...

what's strangely funny to me about this. so these trees are grown at the naval surface warfare center - crane. however, there used to be a naval surface warfare center - white oak. where ironically I guess they didn't grow the white oak. (it was closed in the mid 90s and is now the FDA HQ).