I just watched a video of a big military boat going over HUGE waves. How the hell did we send wooden boats across the ocean without them being completely destroyed?
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They used oak tree parts to hold the ship together. Where you see a “Y” (fork) in an oak tree, that part was cut out and it’s natural Y shaped formed the main support to hold the sides of the ship.
Viking ships were different and the outside of the ship was the strongest and not the inside frame.
Wood frames, hulls could bend somewhat and this would counter the forces of the ocean.
Wood was an issue though. Right at the waterline of the ship, there would be rot. If the ship was not properly cared for, the bottom could completely drop off the ship and cause the ship to sink. This is where the term “The Bottom Fell Out” came from. Many ships sank from this happing and storms that smashed their hulls.
A good read about this is “Oak, the Frame of Civilization” by William Logan.
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