Last week we posted that the Canadian submarine force’s four vessels were all out of service. Apparently  the  Canadians are not alone in this regard, as the Australian fleet of six submarines also is in no shape to put to sea, as reported by the the Australian.

Not a single submarine seaworthy
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Photo: Steve Haines for The Boston Globe

Rebuilding a historic ship has got to be part craftsmanship, part engineering, and part treasure hunt.    In the case of the oldest surviving sailing whale ship, the Charles W. Morgan at Mystic, CT, one of the challenges has been finding good quality shipbuilding timber.   In August of 2009, we posted about a literal windfall of live oak trees knocked down by Hurricane Ike in Galveston, TX which yielded over around 175 tons of timber for the rebuilding of the Morgan.

Now several years later, with supplies again running low, a new stock of shipbuilding timber has been discovered in the Charleston Navy Yard in Boston, MA.   Construction crews working on a new Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital facility discovered an underground supply of 140 live oak and white oak timbers in what had once been a timber basin for the Navy Yard. The timbers had been preserved by the mud for nearly a century. The timbers, set aside for future wooden ship construction or repair but long forgotten, will go to the rebuilding the Morgan, which the Seaport Museum hopes to launch in 2013.

Lucky find in Charlestown saves whaler’s restoration
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