Posted by Peter Ceresole on March 29, 2009 at 04:12:10 user PeterC.
In Reply to: Re: Braithwaite and Lewthwaite, was Owdon posted by 3rdamazon on March 28, 2009 at 21:36:25:
I think the great deforestation happened before naval expansion.
Thinking about it a bit harder (which I should have done in the first place, eh?) you must be right. Cutting for firewood would have done most of the depredation, as it does everywhere in the world. But I'm sure I read that numbers of oak, especially, were severely affected, and that the shortage of oak was a real problem for ship builders.