I once asked a guide at the WW2 museum in NOLA about the difference between a restoration and a replica. If it still has the original nameplate, it’s a restoration, he said.
All joking aside several years ago I toured the shop where they were restoring PT-305, a Higgins-built boat. Learned that rather than plywood for the hull, they used two layers of mahogany planks, with a layer of canvas between them.
https://www.nationalww2museum.org/visit/pt-305
Interesting. I wonder if that helps save them from having to swab the deck, to keep the wood wet?
” If it still has the original nameplate, it’s a restoration, he said”
This really makes sense when you think about it. For example if a biplane, restored and repaired over the years you would not be able to tell which wood was original. Sheet metal, even engines, all need to be replaced from time to time. Eventually almost nothing is original and it is hard to prove what is and isn’t. Same goes with wooden sailing ships, even old wooden buildings. For the large wooden temples and castles over in asia they do some incredible feats of engineering to replace some of the large structural beams if they get rot in the.