(from my understanding they're wooden ships -- according to my mother they
were constructed that way, in case they received a blast -- the entire

ship

wouldn't be damaged). The Navy has a saying "Wooden Ships, Iron Men".

snip


Don White wrote:
** As I understand it...the minesweepers used wooden hulls to guard against
magnetic mines.

Yep, that's what they told us too. And the overhead on the upper deck
was just a canvas awning, so that if the ship had her bottom blown out
by a mine, the crew (except for the engineers, but who cares about them)
could cut their way out.

... We had quite a fleet of the old mine sweepers here in
Halifax in the '60s. ( Royal Canadian Navy)
4 or 5 years ago a new fleet of mine sweepers/costal patrol boats were built
but this time out of steel.

Are you sure? I thought the newer minesweeps were built of fiberglass.
The USN has some that were aluminum but this was both troublesome
(electrolysis) and flammable (bad characteristic in a warship).


That old saying of wooden ships/iron men came from the days of sailing
ships.

Yep... going aloft at night in a gale isn't for sissies. Glad I don't
have to!

Fresh Breezes- Doug King