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When I say “the United States Navy,” what
do you think of?

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Boats?

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Little outfits?

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The military-industrial complex?

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What about a 53,000 acre forest in Indiana?

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Well, start thinking about it, because it
exists, and it’s here, at the world’s

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third largest naval installation: Naval Support
Activity Crane.

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It’s there so that the barnacle boys can
do repairs on exactly one boat, conveniently

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located here, in nearby Boston.

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And if you’re wondering on what planet the
Navy managing a whole forest to repair exactly

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one boat is the best solution to anything,
all aboard!

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We’re setting sail on a pithy but effective
explanation.

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The exactly one boat in question is this one:
the USS Constitution, currently afloat here.

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She was launched into Boston Harbor at 12:15pm
on October 21st, 1797, making her both the

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oldest still-floating, still-commissioned
naval ship in the world… and a Libra.

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She’s also a strong-willed, work-oriented
Capricorn Rising, making her a huge asset

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to the young US Navy—winning a decisive
battle against the HMS Guerriere during the

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War of 1812.

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The story goes that the Constitution’s 22-inch-wide
hull was so strong that the British cannonballs

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just bounced off the sides, prompting someone
very clever to yell “Huzzah, her sides are

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made of iron!”

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Which landed her the nickname “Old Ironsides,”
even though huzzah, her sides are not made

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of iron, they’re made of white oak.

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And Old Ironsides is really old—225 years,
though she doesn’t look it.

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That’s because she gets frequent repairs
and replacement parts, including new white

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oak planks for her sides.

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But during a restoration in 1973, they got
worried, because there wasn’t much white

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oak left.

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And you can’t just sub some other wood because
white oak is, on a cellular level, better

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than just about any other at making boaty
floaty.

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To understand why, we’re going to tree school.

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No, not preschool, tree school.

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Thank you.

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Welcome to tree school, this is a tree.

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In the trunk of this tree, there are two types
of wood: sapwood and heartwood.

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If a tree’s alive, the sapwood is alive.

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It sends water and nutrients up and down through
little hollow tubes like this one, which is

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called a “xylem:” a five-letter word worth
a near-miraculous seventeen points in Scrabble.

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Each year, a fresh new ring grows on the outer
edge of the sapwood, and the innermost sapwood

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ring retires into the heartwood to die.

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Put another way, the heartwood is a tree’s
Florida.

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In many trees, including red oak, when a ring
turns into heartwood it gets pretty susceptible

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to fungus or bacteria or whatever wants to
crawl up through the xylems and wreak havoc.

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But it’s a different story in white oak.

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When a ring of white oak sapwood turns into
heartwood, it develops things called tyloses,

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basically teeny-weeny corks that plug up the
xylems.

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Whether the tree is standing or the wood’s
in boat mode, these tyloses provide rot resistance—stopping

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nefarious things from crawling through the
xylem to infect the wood—and also watertightness,

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as they stop water from leaking through these
naturally-occurring pores.

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So obviously, this wood is good for boat stuff.

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It’s also used for wine barrels, bourbon
barrels, railroad ties… basically anywhere

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you don’t want your wood to rot and/or for
liquids to pass through.

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But it also grows extremely slowly versus
red oaks and other comparable woods: you can

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harvest a red oak when it’s about 80 to
100 years old, but white oaks tend to go until

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150 to 200.

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So by the time they were doing that USS Constitution
Restoration in ‘73, the country’s old

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growth white oak supply was pretty low, and
not coming back quickly.

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That’s the “exactly one boat” half of
things, but how did the US Navy come to maintain

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an entire forest in the first place—let
alone to repair exactly one boat?

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And why is it in Indiana?

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After all, the only waterborne threat to Indiana
is wayward Chicagoans whose architecture cruise

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took a wrong turn, and you don’t need the
Navy to deal with them.

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Well, as it turns out, the Navy bought this
land to store munitions during World War II

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on the assumption that if anyone dropped a
bomb on the US, it would probably not be in

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the middle of Indiana, an F-tier state that
isn’t even worth the bomb it would take

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to destroy it.

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But the land didn’t take well to being built
on, and after a lot of erosion, the Navy hired

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a forester to reforest and take care of it
in the fifties.

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Over time, one forester in Crane became a
whole forestry and natural resources program

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that had the Navy managing trees et cetera
in several timber forests.

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And of these, Crane became the most profitable
and sustainable, so you can put that up on

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the list of “worthwhile things about Indiana.”

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So back to the USS Constitution.

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Seeing the lack of old growth white oak supply
during the 1973 restoration, Navy Captain

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Vernon P. Klemm—whose name was my favorite
in this story until I realized these pictures

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were taken by a guy named Bill Couch—suggested
that the Navy should start growing their own

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white oak to supply future Constitution repairs.

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And in 1976, they designated 150 trees across
their very successful forest in Crane to be

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grown, maintained, and harvested to repair
the USS Constitution.

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So now, when it’s replace-the-planks-o’clock
at Charlestown Navy Yard, three civilian foresters

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at Naval Support Activity Crane handpick which
trees get harvested.

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In 2012, ahead of a restoration that would
go from 2015 to 2017, those three examined

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seventy of the 150 trees and selected 35 that
were ready for plankage.

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They cut them down between February 20th and
21st of 2014, because during other parts of

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the year, the endangered Indiana Bat lives
in Crane’s white oaks and you can’t bother

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it.

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They stored and dried out the wood in Crane
before shipping it out to Boston to get boaty,

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and continued looking after the rest of the
forest ecosystem after to make sure they’ll

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have healthy white oaks ready next time they’re
needed.

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And that’s how the Navy manages an entire
forest to repair exactly one boat.

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It’s not the most conventional use of military
funds, sure…

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I mean, “forestry to extend the life of
a mostly-ceremonial boat” isn’t the number

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one thing I assumed the US military did.

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But of the things the US military does, it’s
actually one of the most palatable.

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So float on, Old Ironsides!

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Huzzah!

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You know what else is palatable?

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Home-brewed coffee, thanks to this video’s
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Before I met Trade, my home coffees were anything
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At worst, they were bitter and watery.

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At best, they were boring… which is why
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least seven dollars a day to get my morning
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Or you can just do what I do and order whatever
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Virginia.

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Did it taste funky or like chicken?

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No!

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Did it taste fresh and sweet with just a slight
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You bet.

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advance.