[Ramius]

He needs to learn more about shipbuilding and maritime commerce in the age of sail. A very few ships lasted as long as twenty years. Those that were built quickly, with green wood, had the shortest life spans. Merchant ships were much shorter lived than naval vessels because they used cheaper materials, spent less building a tight ship, and did less maintenance than did the navy. A merchant ship was expected to recoup the investment of purchase within three to five years. Many did not last that long.

That's interesting. Do you have a place I can go to read more about that? I would've thought that shipwrights generally would not have used green wood and would have known better. They spent so very much time and effort building a ship, with only hand tools... It would surprise me that they only expected the ship to last a few short years. Given the craftsmanship I've seen in the ones that -did- survive it would be surprising to think that they expected all that attention to detail to possibly be wasted.

[centurion316]

Brian Lavery is the expert. He’s written many books, but one of the best on the topic of the material of ship building is:

Building the Wooden Walls: The Design and Construction of the 74 Gun Ship Valiant, Conway Maritime Press (1991) ISBN 0-85177-579-9

Properly aged wood was expensive, even the Royal Navy cut corners from time for reasons of expense and the urgency of wars. Green wood was cheaper and a small merchant vessel could be constructed very quickly. Almost all of the vessels on both sides of the Great Lakes campaigns during the Revolution and the War of 1812 were built from green wood. The remains of the Steamship Arabia in Kansas City show that she was built cheaply and quickly with unaged wood. Only a few profitable journeys were required to pay the cost of construction.

Of course, there were long lived ships as well, both merchant and men of war. HMS Bellona, a 74 gun ship of the line was launched in 1761 and served almost to the end of the Napoleanic Wars