some historical data on oak in the British Navy:<p>><i>At the zenith of Horatio Nelson’s navy in the late-1700s into the 1800s, it took about 4,000 oak trees, or up to 40 hectares of forest, to build a single 100-gun ship-of-the-line. That’s equivalent to 3,750 city blocks of optimum-density oak forest for a vessel that, on average, sailed for 12 years.</i><p><a href="https://legionmagazine.com/the-royal-navys-war-on-trees/" rel="nofollow">https://legionmagazine.com/the-royal-navys-war-on-trees/</a><p>><i>Oak trees planted on the orders of Lord Nelson will be used to restore HMS Victory in time for the bicentenary of the Battle of Trafalgar next year. In 1802, with his flagship in need of refitting, Nelson toured the Royal Forest of Dean, in Gloucestershire, with his mistress Lady Hamilton and her husband. He subsequently made a secret deal with the largest timber merchant to provide enough supplies for HMS Victory and to refit other ships. Nelson also recommended to Parliament that the Forest of Dean be replanted to safeguard timber supplies for the Navy, which was done in 1808. Two trees planted then will now be used to repair the gun decks of the Victory.</i><p><a href="https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Oak+trees+planted+on+the+orders+of+Lord+Nelson+will+be+used+to...-a0119570582" rel="nofollow">https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Oak+trees+planted+on+the+orde...</a><p>there was a really interesting oak-growing factoid I read about, but I can't seem to find it. For a particular structural element for a sailing ship, you wanted to use a tree that grew with a crook in it, I guess it provided a natural place to support the next deck up or something. I think it was Nelson who was growing some trees precisely for that.<p>Anyway, I found this: the US Navy maintains an oak grove to provide wood for repairing the USS Constitution (the oldest commissioned warship still afloat).<p><a href="https://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/uss-constitution-and-constitution-grove.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/uss-constituti...</a><p>according to wikipedia, "Captain Cuthbert Collingwood, later to become an admiral and Nelson's second in command at Trafalgar, had his home at Morpeth, in Northumberland, and when he was there on half pay or on leave he loved to walk over the hills with his dog Bounce. He always started off with a handful of acorns in his pockets, and as he walked he would press an acorn into the soil whenever he saw a good place for an oak tree to grow."