Some Surprising Numbers

The dimensions of a vessel of this type are impressive: the length between perpendiculars varies from 54.90m to 56.50m, the extreme beam can reach 14.30m at the main frame, and the depth of hold which corresponds to the height of the hold at the main frame is almost 7m! This explains why it takes about 2,800 century-old oak trees to build a single ship, with the addition of other species: pines for the masts, elm for the gun trucks, pump bodies and braces, beech for barrels and casks, gayac for block sheaves, and also walnut, chestnut and poplar.

The main metal utilized was iron, mainly for nailing and treenailing: the longest treenail could reach 3.90m in length with a diameter of 5cm, whereas the longest nails could be as long as .40m. Such a large quantity of iron represents a mass of about 60 tons, to which can be added about 150 tons of ballast and 250 tons of guns and gunshot plus 12 tons for the anchors and 25 tons of circle bands for casks, not to mention banding for masts and ironwork for reinforcement of hanging knees, etc.

Other materials were also utilized: 100 tons of stone for ballast and close to 100 tons for ropes, not to mention 34 sails, often with their replacement spares!

This ship was a veritable floating city peopled with 775 men taking part in 6 to 7-month campaigns. The officer staff numbered 17, the crew 585, the marine guard 118, plus supernumeraries: surgeon, apothecary, servants, butcher, baker, etc...

This crowd of people had to be fed and the ship carried 500 tons of water and 100 tons of wine, 50 tons of biscuit, 15 tons of beans and rice, 15 tons of miscellaneous salted meats, 25 tons of flour as well as sugar, dried fruit, butter, oil etc...The galleys required about 50 tons of firewood and used something like 150 sheep and more than 500 chicken that needed 10 tons of hay and 3 tons of grain.

We note also that the Brest navy yard alone employed up to 10,00 people at one time, with a corresponding impact on employment in the regions involved in ship building.

When such a ship goes to sea, it displaces the respectable weight of 3000 tons.

It goes without saying that the impact of naval construction on the economy of the kingdom was considerable: given that it takes 1.5 tons of pig iron to obtain one ton of iron and that a single ironwork could produce between 130 and 170 tons of iron per year, it can be easily understood that this industry was given high priority.

As far as forestry is concerned, besides the timber needed for ship carpentry, wood from trees at least 20 years old was needed to produce charcoal to feed smelting ovens for casting guns. It should be observed that the need to transport timber and metals to construction sites helped in the development of means of communication, either by land or water.

We can also point out the enormous requirements in hemp for the production of rope and sails: many regions of France were involved in the production of rope-making hemp.

As a final remark : a well organized and rigorous administration was set up to support this effort and it is thanks to the serious management of precise and detailed records that we can even to this day dig into this extraordinary page of the history of the Royal Navy.

As a conclusion we can see that naval construction involved the whole of French economic activities and pushed for constant innovation at all levels of the economy in order to constantly improve the formidable fighting machine that was a naval vessel whose decline would only start with the advent of steam.