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Cost of an Ancient Warship
"Charles Talleyrand" wrote in message
... [ SNIP ] Can someone offer other examples, particularly from a different time period and/or a different sized ship? That would be most helpful. I offered one example - the bomb vessel series from 1692 - in another post in this thread. Keith helpfully corrected me on contemporary wages, suggesting that skilled labour at the time (shipwrights etc) was probably closer to 25 pounds per individual per annum. The construction cost estimates that I cited for those bomb vessels were 2828 pounds total - of that, 1919 pounds were for the timber, planks, trenails, pitch, tar, mast, sundry material and workmanship, masts and yards, and 909 pounds were for furnishing with rigging and ground tackle sails and sea stores for the boatswain's and carpenter's store, and eight months provision of sea stores. This Navy Board estimate does not include ordnance stores. Again, without including ordnance stores, Chris Ware states that the total cost of purchased/converted bombs in the period 1690-95 was 13,315 pounds (this for eight vessels), and 31,872 pounds for fourteen purpose-built bombs. For purposes of comparison, he mentions that with this total expenditure (45,187 pounds) one could have purchased two Third Rates (without sea and ordnance stores). Costs of the INFERNAL class of bombs (late 1750's) ranged from 3355 to 3758 pounds. These are building costs only. In fact, a average of another 400 pounds was expended per vessel of this class to fit them for service (i.e. fitting the mortar beds), and the cost would still not include the ordnance. As another complementary set of figures, from the same source, we find that the costs of fitting out a 1690's bomb with mortars and ordnance stores was: ca. 3480 pounds for a 13in mortar and all materials and officers to attended (wages for Ordnance staff) 60 pounds for the mortar @ 12s per ton 140 pounds for two carriages 700 pounds for five hundred 12 1/4 inch bombs (the HE ammo) 175 pounds for 125 carcasses (incendiary ammo) ca. 14 pounds for 750 fuzes 480 pounds for a 100 ton tender Of course, one then still has to add wages for officers and seamen who manned the vessel. As this helps also give an idea of the costs of a ship, I'll note that Michael Lewis ("The Navy of Britain") mentions that in the 13th and 14th centuries the average seaman received 9 shillings a month. These wages dropped considerably in the following few centuries. In the mid 1600's the wages for a seaman were 14-15 shillings per month, but considering inflation, things had actually gotten worse. Of course, at close to ten pounds per annum, in the 17th century, the average sailor was doing better than most. After the Spithead mutiny in 1797, pay was roughly a shilling per day (assuming you actually got paid). If you look at Web sources like http://www.ex.ac.uk/~RDavies/arian/current/howmuch.html, I think you'll find that there is a great deal of information about wages and costs at various times. AHS |
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