S*%t just got real...

This is a picture of the wood I ordered for my backbone timbers, fresh off the sawmill track in Suriname, and ready to be packed into a container and shipped up to New England where Nat and Ross at the Gannon & Benjamin Marine Railway will hold onto it until Dad and I can drive up there and take delivery.

The wood itself is Angelique - a species of hardwood so robust, and so resistant to rot and shipworm attack that at times I wonder whether it was engineered by aliens as an ideal boatbuilding material. Here are a few choice passages about the species from the U.S. Forest Service Products Laboratory (emphasis mine):

Angelique occurs only in French Guiana and Surinam...[Its strength] is superior to teak and white oak, when either green or air dry, in all properties except tension perpendicular to the grain, in which it is surpassed by both.  In tests made at the U.S. Forest Products Laboratory, the angelique samples sustained such small amounts of decay by even the most active fungus that it can be unqualifiedly classified for general consideration as very resistant.  

After 10 months’ exposure at Harbor Island, N.C., small specimens showed no evidence of marine borer activity and after 15 months only moderate attack by teredo and pholads. This performance surpassed that of teak, and under the same conditions white oak specimens were heavily attacked within 6 months. Edmondson reports angelique as showing no infestation by teredo and limnoria after an exposure of 3 years in Hawaiian waters. 

Tests indicate that angelique is superior to teak and white oak in resisting abrasion. Service trials on the landing decks of aircraft carriers show that angelique wears at least as well as teak under these rigorous conditions. New York Naval Shipyard, found that angelique holds wood screws at withdrawal loads about one-third greater than those of teak and white oak.

Pretty amazing stuff, right?

Anyway, I've just been notified that the container has cleared customs in Massachusetts, and should be ready for pickup in the very near future. I've also seen the invoice for the first time. I always knew that these major structural timbers would be one of the largest single expenses of the construction, but still...WOW. Let's just say that if I wasn't committed to finishing this project before, I sure am now!