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Cost of an Ancient Warship
It is not going to be easy to equate pre-17th century cost to the
present but once you get an idea of labor and material it will probably be good from the first century up through the 16th. While designs changed materials and construction methods did not change very much and while material prices varied over time long term inflation was virtually unheard of. I can give you a small modern day comparison of labor if not total cost. I have a favorite stopping point in Bay des Cays Haiti that I have stopped by several times over the years. For the past 2 years there has been a group of 3 men directed by an incredibly old guy building a 65' schooner on the beach. They are doing it the old fashioned way with axes and adzes, pegs, oakum and tar. Keel was laid in February 2000 and when we stopped by in May of this year they were preparing to set the masts. I figure they can only work 10 hours a day probably 300 days a year so a SWAG would be 18,000 hours + - maximum if my math is right. (2 yrs*300 days*10 hours*3 men.) Actual time is probably a lot less because they had to spend a lot of time scrounging material. (We donated an old blown out genoa and a worn halyard.) Other adjustments include: Labor and material requirement goes up as the cube of the length so an 85' hull would probably require twice the labor of a 65' one. A 15th century trading vessel would have been a bit more elaborate than this boat and a war ship considerably more. A 15th century ship yard would have more tools and equipment to work with than these poor fellows. Charles Talleyrand wrote: I'm trying to understand the cost of building an oceangoing ship in some terms I can understand. I great answer would be of the form "To build an 80 ft sailing vessel in 1492 took about 14,000 man/hours" or something like that. Or "One could buy a 100 ft sailing vessel in Venice for 9000 florins, and each florin could hire a skilled worker for a week." I'm interested in any time period from ancient Egypt to maybe Napoleon. I'm just trying to get an order of magnitude informed guess. Significant Google searching didn't help. Can anyone here help? -- Glenn Ashmore I'm building a 45' cutter in strip/composite. Watch my progress (or lack there of) at: http://www.rutuonline.com Shameless Commercial Division: http://www.spade-anchor-us.com |
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