Short Trees and Short Timbers
Nantucket, Massachusetts island lies 30 miles off the southern coastline of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. In 1775, Nantucket was the largest whaling Port in the world, and the third largest port in Massachusetts. However, dominance in this most adventurous, dangerous and potentially lucrative of all maritime trades was not supported by an extensive, local, ship building industry. Early Nantucket Forests were unusual and determined the scope of indigenous and colonial wooden ship building on Nantucket Island. Nantucket island has not been home to forests of tall trees for at least 4,000 years. Continual salt spray and the absence of a rich loam soil forced an unusual dwarf morphology on trees such as oak, beech, cedar and pine. Architectural and ship building timbers of large size were not available to the early European and American colonists of Nantucket island nor to the indigenous Wampanoag who made canoes and used offshore waters, rivers and streams to hunt and fish throughout the year.
Read more about this topic: Nantucket Shipbuilding
Famous quotes containing the words short, trees and/or timbers:
“Pigeons on the grass alas.
Pigeons on the grass alas.
Short longer grass short longer longer shorter yellow
grass Pigeons large pigeons on the shorter longer yellow grass
alas pigeons on the grass.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)
“Out of the woods my Master came,
Content with death and shame.
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From under the trees they drew Him last:
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When out of the woods He came.”
—Sidney Lanier (1842–1881)
“If the main timbers in the house are not straight, the smaller timbers will be unsafe; and if the smaller timbers are not straight, the house will fall.”
—Chinese proverb.