|
Description:
|
Past research on eighteenth -century ships has primarily taken one of two avenues , either focusing on naval warship construction or examining the merchant shipping industry as a whole in terms of trends and economics . While these areas are important to pursue , comparatively little is known about actual construction techniques used on the ordinary merchant vessels of the period . Most modern sources emphasize hull design and lines drawings ; contemporary sources take a similar direction , explaining the theory of ship design but often leaving out how to put the ship together . In recent years , however , new information has come to light through archaeological excavations regarding Anglo -American merchant ship construction . In this study , several of these shipwrecks were examined in light of economic factors and the literary evidence from the period in an attempt to gain a better understanding of colonial American merchant ship construction in the eighteenth century . While the data set was not large enough to make conclusive statements , this type of comparative analysis should begin to establish a
framework for the interpretation of future shipwreck excavations . |