How Did Wooden Ships Survive Storms?
For thousands of years, every ship that crossed an ocean was built of wood, rigged with hemp and canvas and sailed without weather forecasts, engines or radio. Yet wooden ships regularly survived storms that would frighten a modern sailor. Many did not, of course, and the seabed is littered with them. The ones that made it home did so through a combination of how they were built, how they were handled and a great deal of hard, wet work by their crews.
Quick answer: wooden ships survived storms because their hulls were heavily framed and flexible enough to absorb the sea’s blows, their seams were caulked so they could be kept reasonably tight, and their crews used well-practiced tactics: reducing sail early, striking upper masts and yards, keeping plenty of sea room, and either heaving to, lying ahull or running before the storm. Constant pumping kept the inevitable leaks under control. When those measures failed, ships were lost, often in great numbers.
Built to Bend: How Wooden Hulls Were Constructed
A traditional wooden ship was built around a massive backbone: the keel, with the stem and sternpost rising from each end. Closely spaced frames (the ship’s ribs), usually of oak, rose from the keel to give the hull its shape. Over these went the planking, fastened with wooden pegs called treenails and, later, iron or copper bolts. Inside, heavy deck beams, knees and longitudinal timbers tied the sides together. The result was enormously strong but never completely rigid.
Flexibility as a survival feature
A wooden hull flexed and “worked” in a seaway. The planks moved slightly against each other and the whole structure twisted and bent as waves passed under it. That flexibility helped the ship absorb shocks that might crack a stiffer structure, but it came at a cost: as the hull worked, seams opened and the ship leaked. Sailors expected wooden ships to take on water in heavy weather, and a ship that “worked” badly could leak faster than her pumps could cope.
Length made the problem worse. A long wooden hull tends to hog, drooping at the bow and stern where there is less buoyancy. In the early 1800s the Royal Navy surveyor Robert Seppings introduced diagonal bracing inside the hull, first tried on the frigate HMS Glenmore around 1800 and then on ships of the line, which stiffened hulls considerably and allowed longer ships to be built. Even so, wood has limits. The six-masted schooner Wyoming, launched in 1909 and often cited as the largest wooden sailing ship ever built, flexed so much in heavy seas that she needed pumps to keep her hold dry. She foundered with all 14 crew in a nor’easter off Cape Cod in 1924.
Caulking: keeping the sea out
The seams between planks were filled with oakum, loose fibers picked from old tarred rope, driven in hard with a caulking iron and mallet and then sealed with hot pitch. Properly done, caulking swelled when wet and made the hull reasonably watertight. Ships were recaulked regularly, and a carpenter at sea would try to stop leaks from inside with oakum, wedges, lead patches or canvas. If a leak was below the waterline and out of reach, sailors sometimes “fothered” it by drawing a sail packed with oakum and wool under the hull so the inflow sucked it into the opening.
Protecting the bottom
Wooden hulls had another enemy beyond storms: shipworm and fouling that weakened and slowed them. From the 1760s the Royal Navy began sheathing hulls in copper, starting with the frigate HMS Alarm in 1761, and the practice spread through the fleet in the following decades. Copper sheathing kept planks sounder, which mattered when a storm put them under strain. It is also the ancestor of the copper in modern antifouling bottom paint.
Handling the Ship: Storm Tactics Under Sail
Construction alone did not save ships. Seamanship did most of the work, and the basic tactics sailors used centuries ago are still taught today.
Shortening sail early
The first rule was to reduce sail before the wind became dangerous. Topsails were reefed, then furled, and courses taken in until the ship carried only a scrap of canvas, often storm staysails or a close-reefed topsail. Sails left up too long could blow out or, worse, lay the ship over or bring down the masts.
Striking upper masts and yards
A square-rigger’s masts were built in sections. When heavy weather threatened, crews could send down the topgallant yards and even strike the topgallant masts to the deck. Removing this weight and windage high up made the ship more stable and reduced the strain on the rigging. It was dangerous, skilled work aloft, done before the storm reached its worst.
Sea room
Every captain feared a lee shore, a coastline downwind of the ship. A sailing ship could only claw off a lee shore if it could carry enough sail to make progress to windward, which in a gale was often impossible. Ships in open water had time and space to ride out a storm; ships caught near land were the ones most often lost.
Heaving to
Heaving to (or lying to) meant setting a small amount of sail and balancing it with the helm so the ship lay roughly bow-on to the waves, making little headway and drifting slowly to leeward. A ship lying to rode the seas fairly comfortably and let the crew rest. Modern sailors still use the same technique; see our guide to offshore sailing for the basics.
Lying ahull
When conditions were too severe even for storm canvas, ships took in all sail and drifted, a practice known as lying ahull or “hulling.” William Bradford’s account of the Mayflower crossing in 1620 describes exactly this: in fierce storms the ship could carry no sail and lay “hull” for days. The risk was that the ship might fall broadside to the waves and roll heavily or be knocked down.
Scudding before the storm
The other option was to run before the wind and sea under bare poles or a tiny sail, which sailors called scudding. A ship running fast enough could stay ahead of breaking seas and was easier to steer. The dangers were broaching (being slewed sideways by a wave) and being pooped, when a wave broke over the stern and flooded the deck. Scudding also needed sea room downwind.
Keeping the Ship Afloat
Pumps and bailing
Pumps were a wooden ship’s lifeline. Larger ships carried chain pumps or several hand pumps, and in heavy weather the crew pumped in relays around the clock. When the sea gained on the pumps, the situation became desperate. Bailing with buckets supplemented the pumps when necessary.
Battening down and securing everything
Hatches were covered with tarpaulins and secured with battens and wedges, which is where the phrase “batten down the hatches” comes from. Guns, boats and spare spars were double-lashed. A heavy cannon that broke loose on a rolling gun deck could smash through the ship’s side.
Lightening and frapping
If a ship was laboring badly or leaking, the captain might lighten her by throwing cargo, stores or even guns overboard. A ship whose hull was in danger of working apart could be frapped: heavy cables were passed under the hull and hove tight to hold the planks together. The practice is ancient; the account of St Paul’s shipwreck in the Book of Acts describes sailors undergirding their ship in a storm.
Repairs at sea
Ships carried a carpenter and plenty of spare timber, rope and canvas. Broken spars were “fished” with splints, rigging was spliced and jury masts rigged. On the Mayflower‘s crossing, one of the main beams amidships cracked and bowed in a storm, and the passengers used a great iron screw they had brought from Holland to raise it back into place before the voyage continued.
Famous Survivals and Losses
| Event | What happened |
|---|---|
| Sea Venture, 1609 | Caught by a hurricane on the way to Jamestown, the ship leaked so badly that the crew pumped for days. Admiral George Somers deliberately ran her onto a reef off Bermuda; everyone aboard survived and the castaways later built two small ships, Deliverance and Patience, to continue. The story is thought to have influenced Shakespeare’s The Tempest. |
| Mayflower, 1620 | Survived a series of North Atlantic storms, including lying ahull for days and a cracked main beam, and reached Cape Cod. |
| Great Storm of 1703 | A violent storm over southern England wrecked many ships; the Royal Navy alone lost 13 ships, including several on the Goodwin Sands, and over 1,500 seamen drowned. The first Eddystone Lighthouse was destroyed. |
| Spanish treasure fleet, 1715 | A hurricane drove the fleet onto the coast of Florida. Of 11 ships, 10 were lost, along with an estimated 700 to 1,000 people. |
| Apia, Samoa, 1889 | A cyclone struck seven warships in an exposed harbor. Six were wrecked or driven ashore; only HMS Calliope, with more powerful engines than the others, managed to steam out to open sea. |
| Wyoming, 1924 | The great wooden schooner foundered off Cape Cod in a nor’easter, with all 14 crew lost. |
The pattern in these stories is clear. Ships caught near land, in exposed anchorages or on lee shores suffered the worst losses. Ships with sea room, a sound hull, enough hands at the pumps and some luck often came through even severe storms.
Why Weather Knowledge Mattered So Much
Before the telegraph, radio and satellite forecasts, sailors relied on the barometer (from the 18th century onward), the look of the sky and sea, swell direction and long experience of seasonal patterns. Captains learned which seasons and regions to avoid, such as the hurricane season in the Caribbean, and the trade wind routes that kept them clear of the worst weather. Many sailing superstitions have their roots in this constant uncertainty about what the sea would do next.
Today, the same lessons apply to small boats: avoid storms when you can, keep sea room when you cannot, reduce sail early and keep the boat and crew secure. Our guides to whether a sailboat can survive a hurricane and docking a sailboat before a storm cover the modern side of storm preparation, and weather tips for boaters will help you read the signs.
How Did Wooden Ships Survive Storms? Summary
- Strong, flexible hulls of heavy oak frames and planking absorbed the sea’s blows, though they leaked as they worked.
- Caulking with oakum and pitch kept seams tight, and carpenters patched leaks at sea.
- Shortening sail early and striking upper masts reduced strain and improved stability.
- Sea room was essential; lee shores and exposed harbors claimed the most ships.
- Heaving to, lying ahull or scudding were the main tactics for riding out the storm.
- Pumps, battened hatches, lightening and frapping kept damaged ships afloat.
- Even so, storms destroyed whole fleets, which is why seamanship and weather knowledge were so highly valued.
