Naval History Forums

Given the prevalence of the seventy-four in the latter half of the 18th century and the inability for dutch navies to accommodate sizeable SotL due to shallow harbors... Would a trimaran SotL solve their problems?

The larger turning radius aside (Which I doubt is an issue given the line combat system), a trimaran SotL would have the shallow draft they need while accomodating more cannons, would it not? Or is there some inherent drawback of a wooden trimaran SotL that they cannot use it as an alternative to monohull SotLs?

Hi EdenZhiweis,

An interesting concept in applying logic to the problem but i suspect the main difficulty is in scaling up the trimaran concept with 18th century materials.

Building a strong wooden keel for a large monohull is one thing, but creating strong enough cross beams to withstand the stresses from three large hulls all responding to buoyancy differently and trying to move relative to one another would probably be impossible with wood. Some modern warship designs have been based on catamarans and trimarans.

Only when monohull ships moved to composite construction (wood and iron) in the 19th century were then able to get longer and bigger in general.

All the best

wadinga

I'd ask Joshua Humphreys to give it a shot. "What a wonderful technological age we live in."

I don´t get the point of why would they be shallower in draft.