Zhenghe Treasure voyages AD 1421

[acelanceloet]

they are, in shipbuilding, also used for the '1 wavetop' and '2 wavetops' conditions, as these result in the same deformations. sagging and hogging is also dependent on loading condition, bulk carriers and supertankers are sometimes seen to be in one of these conditions when empty or fully loaded.

at least, that is what was teached me, IIRC.

[wzw007323]

@Thiel, well permanent but it is rectifiable, I remember they corrected the deformations in the USS Constitution's keel with specially measured keel blocks in the dry-dock

The question is, if these ships existed, there still should be some remains of them if there were a few

Eugh, ChinaDaily is IMHO one of the most dismal media outlets in the world, reporting nothing but nationalist crap,

This is currently the world's largest wooden boat

Umm, no not even close

shows that a strong China is good for world peace and stability.

Ummm no again, these trips were nothing like that

I think you should look to China

[Rodondo]

How do you mean?

[bezobrazov]

Well, politics have no place in SB, especially nationalistic, jingoistic bragging. Anyone reading objective news knows that Chinese policies today, unfortunately leaves something wanting with regards to world peace and stability with its frequent violation of several international maritime laws and treaties.
Let's keep it down to the ships.

Ace, I know you're more a specialist on steel hulls. You cannot compare a wooden hull with a steel hull. A wooden hull is, by definition a very lively hull. Anyone who's been on board a wooden vessel will tell you, so stiffness or lack thereof is not the issue.
However, what is an issue is, if, after a while your keel begins to hog, causing distort ions in the frames and thus resulting in the springing of seams, causing permanent leakages.
Now, you can, like Thiel points out, fix those; however, the question was always about economy, since it would lessen a ship's potential value due to increased docking time. That is why those aforementioned French-built very large two-deckers were never popular with the RN, but were acceptable for the Marine royale or its successor, Marine Nationale, since they usually spent far less time at sea.
And thank you, Rodondo, for pointing those facts out. Yes, there were unusually large vessels even as far back as in the Antiquity, but they were intended for calm, safe lakes or rivers, like you poignantly points out. But then I also did phrase it as such that 300ft was the practicable upper limit, technologically-wise...