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Shipbuilding In Colonial America

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The shipbuilding industry was very important to support fishing, exploration and commercial activities during the years of early European settlement to the United States, a time referred to as the colonization of the United States or “Colonial America”. The British were depleting their wood sources along the waterways on Europe’s west coast. Shipbuilding in Colonial America was mutually advantageous to both the colonists and the British. The many attributes that the wood in Colonial America could provide were desirable to the British. Another benefit of buildings ships in North America was that they were cheaper than those built in British yards. Finally, Building ships in North America also gave the colonists another useful trade item. These are the main reasons why shipbuilding …show more content…
In Great Britain, forests were largely stripped of large sized oak timber along the waterways to provide sufficient timber for ship building (Fassett 22). For example, the building of an 18th century 74-gun ship would require a deforestation of 60 acres of oak trees (Wood 10). As the forests were stripped, transport costs of the raw materials to the British yards would increase. In contrast, North America had an abundance of timber available to support the shipbuilding industry. Master shipbuilders from England provided additional skilled labour to meet the demand for American-built ships in the second half of the 18th century. The combination of quantity and labour available in Colonial America resulted with a cost advantage; for example, a ship costed cost three to four pounds sterling per ton to build in Colonial America, versus five to seven pounds sterling per ton in the same period in Great Britain (Morris 30). The need for timber to build ships for Britain was fulfilled in the American colonies where they had plenty of lumber and ships could be built at cheap

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