THE "WOODEN WALLS"

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 102, 27 October 1938, Page 7

THE "WOODEN WALLS"

The disappearance of the Navy's last "wooden wall" at Plymouth recalls the fact that there are still a number of these old men-of-war at various points on the coast, although their active service ended many years ago, says the "Manchester Guardian." The Mersey training-ship Conway is one of them, her original name having been the Nile. Another is the Thames cadet ship Worcester. Both these vessels were built in leisurely fashion, with none of the rush and scurry of modern re-armament programmes. The Conway was started in 1827 and took the water in 1839, while the Worcester was laid down in 1833 and, after several changes of name and design, was launched in 1860. Three other "wooden walls" are the reformatory ship Cornwall, on the Thames, the famous Implacable, at Portsmouth, and the Unicorn, at Dundee. The end of wooden shipbuilding solved a problem for the Admiralty, for it was reckoned thai; 2000 oak trees were needed to build one of the big fighting ships. By 1861, when ironclads were coming into favour, the Admiralty still had a million pounds' worth of timber on their hands.

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