Sutton Hoo oak in short supply...?

[Imperial Dave]

https://amp-theguardian-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/amp.theguardian.com/culture/2024/oct/04/appeal-british-oak-recreate-sutton-hoo-burial-ship?amp_gsa=1&amp_js_v=a9&usqp=mq331AQGsAEggAID#amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&aoh=17280711184017&csi=0&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fculture%2F2024%2Foct%2F04%2Fappeal-british-oak-recreate-sutton-hoo-burial-ship

Good grief...

[Nick Harbud]

Don't know what all the fuss is about.  As the article points out, there is plenty of oak available in Europe - the French felled quite a lot to rebuild the roof of Notre Dame.

If one reads accounts of the Olympias trireme construction, they had to make all sorts of timber substitution due to most Mediterranean woodlands having been felled a long time ago.  Therefore, using something other than English oak for this reconstruction is perfectly acceptable.  I mean, just how authentic do you want to get?  I bet they are using modern power tools rather than restricting themselves to what was available during Anglo-Saxon times.

 

[Ian61]

Plenty of oak around us and plenty of squirrels busy planting both acorns and, annoyingly, walnuts all over the place.
Is the problem perhaps more that there is a great reluctance to cut down any tree that is not dead?

[Nick Harbud]

Any suitable trees undoubtedly have Tree Preservation Orders all over them, otherwise they would have already been cut down.  I mean, some 40 years ago, a mate of mine bought a house with a fully-grown walnut tree in the back garden sans TPO and shortly after moving in made £5,000, as well as improving the daylight in his lounge.

 

[Imperial Dave]

Nice little earner....

[Cantabrigian]

If one reads accounts of the Olympias trireme construction, they had to make all sorts of timber substitution due to most Mediterranean woodlands having been felled a long time ago. 

Foreigners using foreign wood isn't a big deal.  Us using foreign wood is.

They're all the same over there, you know...

[Nick Harbud]

Let us not forget that the Athenian expedition to Syracuse in 415 BC was partly in order to secure supplies of timber.

[Imperial Dave]

Wood you believe it...