Well if they are using white oak, they arent using the period methods.
She is/was made of Live Oak. Of course I doubt they could get live oak like that any longer.
That is why the shot actually bounced off her sides. There is a special, someplace, either on youtube or someplace where they actually tested live oak plank against white oak. The same thickness and all. They used three pounders and the shot bounced off the live oak plank-which Old Ironsides was made of, and penetrated the white oak, which the Brits ships were made of.
The 6 pounders stuck into the sides of the live oak plank, but went right through the white oak.
Even white oak trees of sufficient size are scarce, which is why the Navy has their own stash of them.
At one point, I participated in a “Live Oak-ing” demo at a local tree farm here in Coastal Georgia that still had large live oak groves. My job was the introduction and explaining how the live oak worked so well. This is what I learned for that event.
She is built of Live Oak, Georgia life oak.
The reason that the shot bounced off the hull was that when you shot a 24 pound or a 32 pound gun and a wooden ship at full charge, even at several hundred yards, and it hit flat on, the shot would go through the bulkhead, anything inboard, and then out through the other side.
So, you wanted to undercharge the gun, so, the shot would go through the first bulkhead, and bounce around on the inside.
The Brits didn’t get the charges right before the Constitution wasted them.
Had they been able to use a 42 cannonade or carronade, on the Constitution, things may have been different.
I suspect you are both right. Live oak is very twisty and is used for curved fittings and stuff. The long straight beams aren’t live oak. There is still plenty of Live Oak along the gulf coast.