Copper sheathing

Copper sheathing was the practise of protecting the under-water hull of a ship or boat through the use of copper plates affixed to the outside of the hull. It was pioneered and developed by the Royal Navy during the 18th century.

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Development

Deterioration of the hull of a wooden ship was a significant problem during the Age of Sail. Several methods were developed for protecting it from attack by shipworm and the various marine weeds - all of which had some adverse effect on the ship, be it structurally, in the case of the worm, or speed and handling in the case of the weeds. The most common methods of dealing with these problems were through the use of wood sheathing, occasionally lead. Wood sheathing effectively provided a non-structural skin to the hull for the worm to attack, and could be easily replaced in dry dock at regular intervals. It did nothing to reduce the weed growths, however. Lead sheathing, whilst more effective than wood in its stated purpose, reacted badly with the iron bolts of the ships causing sometimes severe damage.

Even older than the sheathing methods were the various graving and paying techniques. There were three main substances used: White stuff, which was a mixture of train oil, rosin and brimstone; Black stuff, a mixture of tar and pitch; and Brown stuff, which was simply brimstone added to Black stuff. It was common practise to first apply wood sheathing and then pay it with white stuff, although black stuff was occasionally used in this way.

The use of copper sheathing was first suggested in 1708 by Charles Perry, though it was rejected by the Navy Board on grounds of high cost and perceived maintenance difficulties. The first experiments with copper sheathing were made in the late 1750s, at which time the bottoms and sides of several ships' keels and false keels were sheathed with copper plates.

In 1761 the experiment was expanded, and the 32-gun frigate HMS Alarm was ordered to have her entire bottom coppered, in response to the terrible condition in which she returned from service in the West Indies. Before the copper plates were applied, the hull was first covered with Soft stuff, which was simply hair, yarn and brown paper. The copper performed very well in protecting the hull from invasion by worm, and in preventing the growth of weed, for when in contact with water, the copper produced a poisonous film, composed mainly of oxychloride, that deterred these marine creatures. Furthermore, as this film was slightly soluble it gradually washed away, leaving no way in which marine life could attach itself to the ship. However, it was soon discovered by the Admiralty that the copper bolts used to hold the plates to the hull had reacted with the iron bolts used in the construction of the ship, rendering many of them near useless. In 1766, due to the poor condition of the iron bolts, Alarm's copper was ordered to be removed, and was not replaced.

After this experiment, and deterred by the unanticipated (and not understood) electrolytic reaction between the copper and iron, Lead sheathing was tried again, though it was found to be unsuitable to the task, as the plates tended to fall from the hull alarmingly quickly. In 1769, another attempt was made at coppering a ship's hull, this time on a new ship that had been constructed using bolts made from a copper alloy. The results were far more favourable this time around, but the onset and intensification of the war with America prevented the re-bolting of the Royal Navy's ships, necessary to allow a full scale coppering programme.

Widespread Implementation

With the American war behind them, the Royal Navy set about coppering the bottoms of the entire fleet. This would not have been possible but for the declarations of war from France (1778), Spain (1779) and the Netherlands (1780). Britain was now expected to face her three greatest rivals, and coppering allowed the navy to keep at sea for much longer periods of time without the need for cleaning and repairs to the underwater hull, making it a very attractive, if expensive, proposition. The cost of coppering a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line was £1500, compared to just £262 for wood. The benefits of increased speed and time at sea were deemed by the Admiralty to outweigh the costs involved, and in May 1779, all ships up to and including 32-guns were ordered to be coppered when next they entered dry dock. In July this order was expanded to include ships of 44 guns and fewer.

It was decided that the entire fleet should be coppered, due to the difficulties in maintaining a mixed fleet of coppered and non-coppered ships. 82 ships of the line had been coppered by 1781, along with 14 50-gun ships, 115 frigates, and 182 unrated vessels. By the time the war ended in 1783 problems with the hull bolts were once more becoming apparent.

Finally a suitable alloy for the hull bolts was found, that of copper and zinc. At great cost, the Admiralty decided in 1786 to go ahead with the re-bolting of every ship in the navy, thus finally eliminating the bolt corrosion problem. This process lasted several years, after which no significant changes to the coppering system were required, and copper plating remained the standard method of protecting a ship's underwater hull until the advent of modern anti-fouling paint.

References

• Lavery, Brian (2000) The Arming and Fitting of English Ships of War 1600-1815. Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-451-2