# Wooden Boats **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 12, 1999, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wooden-boats/4727 "1999-11-12T14:03:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![galen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecc23a/32.png) [@galen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/galen)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 1999, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wooden-boats/4727/1 "1999-11-12T14:03:00Z")
Wood floats because it weighs less than an equal volume of water. One would think, then, that a wooden boat full of water should not completely sink. After all, a volume of water equal to that of the boat should still weigh more than the weight of the boat and the water in it. Right? I posted this topic before, but was never able to retreive the answers, so if you answered it then, please do so again ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 1999, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wooden-boats/4727/2 "1999-11-12T14:25:00Z")
If you fill your standard dory with water, it will slosh around at the surface, completely waterlogged, but not sinking. If you fill your standard ship, schooner, brig, barkentine, etc. with water, then the iron used in much of the internal construction together with the ballast that is deliberately placed at the bottom of ships to keep them upright will drag the ship down. When ships were all wooden, it was fairly common to read of ships which had broken up in storms where a segment of a deck floated for quite a while because the remaining piece of wreckage was not ballasted. (You could not, generally, float around on it for a very long time: without the integrity of the whole structure, the action of the waves would tear it apart. In addition, sections of a ship that are not intended to sit _in_ the water are not always selected for their waterproof tendencies and they can become waterlogged and sink.) * * * Tom~ ---
**Author:** ![The\_LION](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8e7dd6/32.png) [@The\_LION](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_LION)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 1999, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wooden-boats/4727/3 "1999-11-12T14:34:00Z")
I hope this works. Here is a link to your previous topic on this subject. [http://www.straightdope.com/ubb/forum3/html/003490.html](http://www.straightdope.com/ubb/forum3/html/003490.html) Peace t lion ---
**Author:** ![The\_LION](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8e7dd6/32.png) [@The\_LION](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_LION)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 1999, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wooden-boats/4727/4 "1999-11-12T14:40:00Z")
My previously posted link is NOT GOOD! Here it is correctly. [http://www.straightdope.com/ubb/forum3/html/003459.html](http://www.straightdope.com/ubb/forum3/html/003459.html) Peace t lion ---
**Author:** ![The\_LION](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8e7dd6/32.png) [@The\_LION](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_LION)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 1999, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wooden-boats/4727/5 "1999-11-12T14:47:00Z")
One more time. [http://www.straightdope.com/ubb/Forum3/HTML/003459.html](http://www.straightdope.com/ubb/Forum3/HTML/003459.html) If this doesn’t work try looking back about three or four pages. Peace t lion ---
**Author:** ![Cap\_n\_Crude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Cap\_n\_Crude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cap_n_Crude)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 1999, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wooden-boats/4727/6 "1999-11-12T19:02:00Z")
> [@](#): > > One would think, then, that a wooden boat full of water should not completely sink. After all, a volume of water equal to that of the boat should still weigh more than the weight of the boat and the water in it. Right? Wrong. I used to think this too, but the logic doesn’t hold water (sorry – I couldn’t resist). The flaw in the reasoning here is that you’re mistaking the volume of the **boat** (that is, the area bounded by the wooden planks) for the volume of the **wood** (the combined height, width and depth of all the pieces of wood). for small boats (like rowboats), the two figures are generally fairly close. If you fill your dinghy with water, you’ll only succeed in swamping it (the boat will sink to the surface level of the water). A cavernous wooden boat with very little hull material will sink like a stone if completely filled with water, though. Stop me before I make another parenthetical remark (too late)!! * * * –Da Cap’n “Playin’ solitaire 'til dawn With a deck of fifty-one.” ---
**Author:** ![DougC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@DougC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DougC)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 1999, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wooden-boats/4727/7 "1999-11-12T20:59:00Z")
- - - I disagree - wood (generally) floats. That means either your wooden dinghy or Noah’s ark will float if they’re foundered in one piece, or if they’re chopped into little bitty pieces. It’s still wood; it’s still gonna float. _-As long as it’s not filled with rocks-_ Wooden sailing ships of yore (a’ la’ Christopher Columbus) had ballast rocks placed in a compartment underneath the lower floor to help them stay upright in crosswinds (they didn’t have large keels like modern boats do). If they got a hole in their hulls, they would sink because of the weight of the ballast stones, not because wood doesn’t float. - - - - Using sonar to search for ballast stones is one of the primary ways of finding sunken ships. Finding stones even helps identify the ship that used to contain them; different shipyards in Europe used different shapes, sizes and material for stones. Finding stones and identifying them isn’t a guarantee of finding a ship’s treasure, however. There are cases of shipwreck sites being approximately known and the correct type of ballast stones being found in the area, but no other ship remains having been found. What happened in these instances was that the ship would strike a reef, breaking open the bottom of the hull and the stones would fall out. The ship would then tip over and drift off to (eventually) sink somewhere else. - MC ---
**Author:** ![NanoByte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecc23a/32.png) [@NanoByte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NanoByte)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 1999, 8:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wooden-boats/4727/8 "1999-11-14T08:51:00Z")
Whether you float or not depends on your cap size. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 1999, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wooden-boats/4727/9 "1999-11-14T12:36:00Z")
Either way, _swim for your life!!_ * * * -PIGEONMAN- Hero For A New Millennium! [The Legend Of PigeonMan](http://www.hotkey.net.au/~guanolad/pigeonman/) - updates every Wed & Sat