The habitat of ship pines is the territory dominated by the harsh climate. Pine forests settled in taiga areas. Pines overgrown mountain ranges. A lot of them grow in a mild climate, for example, in the Crimea.
Due to its growth in northern latitudes with cold climatic conditions, pine - coniferous tree - has unique wood with excellent physical and mechanical properties. The breed belongs to the popular building materials.
Morphology
Ship pine belongs to the genus of evergreen conifers. She has a narrow soft or needle needles. Needles are collected in small bunches (2-5 pieces each), humiliating the ends of shortened shoots. In ripened cones, growing in length up to 3-10 centimeters, nut-shaped seeds are hidden, which are almost all equipped with wings.
Photophilous trees with a deep and powerful root system, as a rule, form homogeneous plantings - pine groves. For habitation, they prefer dry quartz sands, devoid of fertile humus, peaty soils and sphagnum bogs.
The excellent ductility of the root system, the intensive development of the roots, their ability to capture significant zones of the soil stratum and penetrate into its deep layers, as well as the ability to master new places with negative properties, determine the adaptability to various types of soils.
Tree characteristic
The wood of this plant with tall straight trunks is characterized by special strength, hardness and resinousness. It is an ideal wood material for shipbuilding. It was from here that the name “ship pines” arose - trees with certain properties. And forests, where pines mainly grow, are called “ship’s groves” or “mast forests”. Vessels built from these trees were called "floating pine."
The height of the trees, reaching a girth of half a meter, is often selected to 70 meters. There are almost no knots on the surface of their slender trunks. The increased value of the wood of this plant lies in the fact that there are practically no flaws in it, it has a kind of beautiful natural pattern, original texture.
The color palette of wood is diverse. It largely depends on the conditions where ship pines grow, photos of which are always impressive. The color is whitish-yellow, reddish and brown. Products from it are of high quality and decorative.
Pine wood has a high density. It is 1.5 times larger than ordinary pines. She is also not prone to warping, swims perfectly. Trunks of felled plants are easily rafted along the rivers that cut the dead taiga.
The resinous substances that emit ship pines in large quantities protect the materials obtained from it (logs, beams, boards, etc.) from decay, parasitic individuals and fungi. Structures from them are much more durable than from other tree species.
Types of ship pines
Three types of pines are suitable for shipbuilding: yellow, red (ore) and white (mantle). The yellow pines, rising 50-70 meters up, have light, strong, strong and resilient wood. Mast elements are made from it.
Red pine, which stretches the expanses of the northern Russian strip, its dry places and elevations, is used in the manufacture of wooden lining, used in the interior design of marine vessels. From it make decking. She upholstered on the inside of the sides, hold spaces, cabin shields and more.
The wood of white pines, preferring marshy and water flooded areas, is used for temporary work. It is used where there is no need to observe special strength and strength. Materials from such wood are suitable for the assembly of temporary scaffolding, templates, supports and other elements. Determine what kind of pine in the picture, a photo of a tree is unlikely to help. For this purpose, wood cuts are needed.
Use in shipbuilding
Shipbuilders in a special way used different parts of the trunks. Ships were built in accordance with natural signs. Important details were made from the part of the trunk facing north. This made it possible to obtain solid and durable structural elements. After all, a tree on the north side receives a minimum of heat and sun. So, the wood taken from the north side is small-layer, it is more dense.
The most even wood fibers are endowed with a pine deprived of lower branches. The height of the tree and even trunks without flaws made it possible to obtain keels and long boards with a flat surface from logs.
Sailors of past eras used not only wood plants for the construction of water transport, but also resin. They impregnated sails and ropes with it, patched grooves in various vessels. As a result, durable ships with durable equipment were received. From tall slender mighty pines built ships for the fleet of the Russian Empire.
Mast trees
The tallest ship pines with strong straight trunks are ideal for the manufacture of masts of sailing ships. Their incredibly hard and resinous wood is especially strong in the central part of the trunks, where the core of the tree is located.
The outer layers of sapwood and the core are different in color. The core has a more intense color than sapwood. The color tone of the core depends on the growing conditions of the trees.
