Titre : Shipwrights. Working with timber in wooden boatbuilding 

Auteurs : Théo Lebouc,  

Revue : Archaeology, Society and Environment 

Numéro : Issue 1 

Volume : 3 

Date : 2023/11/30 

DOI : 10.21494/ISTE.OP.2023.1032 

ISSN : 2752-4507 

Résumé : Finding the right timber to make a piece is a constant concern for shipwrights. These craftsmen who build and restore wooden boats have to consider various parameters when making their choice. They pay particular attention to the grain of the timber. To be resistant, the parts must be cut from “grain wood”, i.e. wood whose fiber orientation corresponds to the shape of the desired part. The hull of a ship is mostly made up of curved shapes. Shipwrights therefore turn to trees with curves, which they call “naturally bent timber” (“bois tors” in French) or “marine timber”. The difficulty of obtaining these particular shapes of wood, as well as the need to take into account the specific defects and constraints of each log, forced shipwrights to make compromises and concessions in order to choose a timber from which they could make their piece. Based on several years of ethnography in professional yards and training centers, this paper describes how shipwrights read and judge wood. The case of techniques to circumvent the difficulty of finding “curved timber” by creating curved shapes from straight wood will also be studied. All of this will allow to shed light on the demanding aspect of the shipwright’s activity, which is the search for timber. 

Éditeur : ISTE OpenScience