In article ,
"Charles Talleyrand" wrote:

Here's a summary of the data about old-time ship construction I've gathered.
Much thanks to the people who helped add to this collection. Can anyone add
more?

Unless stated otherwise, all prices are without weapons. For a normal
man-o-war the weapons might be 25% of the hull price give or take alot.
Sails might be the same amount.

A Greek Trireme in the ~400BCs cost ABOUT 5,000 drachma and the equipment
for it cost about 2,200 drachma. Each drachma is about a day's salary.
http://www-atm.physics.ox.ac.uk/rowi...me/thesis.html


A medium trader of 40 tons or more carring capacity must have cost about £100
when new
in 1580.

Prince Royal 1610, 114x43ft, 1330 tons, 55 guns:
Overall building cost was 20,000 pounds of which 441 went on carving and 868
7s on painting/guilding

Sovereign of the Seas 1637 of 169 foot on the gun deck and 1461 tons
http://www.kotiposti.net/felipe/England/england.html
Overall building cost 65,586 pounds 16s 9.5d (including guns)
of which 6,691 pounds on carving & decoration.

To build a 'bomb vessel' of about 100 feet in 1692 cost 2828 pounds which was
about 120
man-years worth of salary for a skilled laboror, or 283 man-years for a
common
sailor.

To build a "Third Rate" in 1692 would have cost about 22,000 pounds which is
about
880 man-years salary (skilled) or 2,200 (common sailor)

In 1750 the Infernal bomb ship had a crew of 80 men and was ship-rigged at 96
ft long and 385
tons and cost about 3500 pounds. http://home.wnclink.com/russell/thunder.htm
which is the equivelent of 249,000 pounds in 2002.
http://eh.net/hmit/ppowerbp/pound_re...500&shillings=
&pence=&year2=1790&action=compare

The HMS Victory of 100 guns and 186 foot on the gun deck displacing 2126 tons
cost 63,176 pounds.

A Dainish 70 gunner in 1780 cost 187,000 reichsguilder or 3,000 man-years of
for an ordinary sailor including guns and sails.

A Danish 90-gunner in 1790 cost 212,700 reichsguilder or about 3,500
man-years
for an ordinary sailor including sails and bronze guns.

And the USS Constitution cost $302,718 in 1797 US dollars,
although the Brits could build a 74 gun ship for less.
It took something like 25,000 man-months to build a Constitution (or a
British 74).
The Constitution was way over budget, which was only $100,00.
http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/s...nstitution.htm
http://www.geocities.com/Broadway/Al...43/supfrig.htm

While I've seen quotes from N.A.M. Rodger in this thread, I haven't seen
any mention of the Scottish ships built by James IV between 1504 and
1510. Rodger's "Safeguard of the Sea" says that the 6-700 tom Margaret
"cost a quarter of a year's revenue for James IV. That seems to work out
to about 1,250 Marks.

Note this doesn't include the 'shore establishment' that is so important
to actually sustaining naval power over significant numbers of decades.

Regards,

Tom Billings

--
Oregon L-5 Society

http://www.oregonl5.org/