Building a wooden boat is a highly skilled and labour-intensive activity.
The bounty's launch would cost around £50,000 at commercial rates in 2017,
taking a shipwright and his apprentice around nine months full-time work.
And that doesn't count the research needed to check that they are using plans
that are as close as possible to the actual boat, which of course rotted away centuries ago.
Here we've got Grown Oak. It's come out the side of a hill. It's built on a slope
and it's turned towards the light, or the ground has shifted.
Slightly, maybe a bit of settlement.
And as it's grown then, it's turned and gone upwards.
So this is the bottom of the trunk with about a 45 degree turn in the actual trunk.
They make quick money cutting them up for firewood,
because they're not very easy to cut because of the shape.
For us boat builders, they're like gold dust because we can actually get the actual shape
of the frame that we need with the grain running with the finished items
so that we're using it to build strength into the boat.
After sourcing the wood, the first step is to draw out the plan's full size
and to create plywood patterns for the main structural members.
The lofting alone took three weeks.
Then a stem, keel and transom are cut and copper fastened together.
A strong base is constructed and precisely positioned against a ridge.
Measurements can be taken from this to ensure that the boat is symmetrical.
Then the floors and frames are cut, shaped and positioned on the keel.
Thin battens are constructed so that final adjustments can be made to the frames to ensure a fair curve.
So you've got a little bit to come off there.
The battens are then used to create the outline of each strike.
That will take our spoiling board, put that up against the boat
and sometimes we can only mark one edge, but if we've got one edge marked on the spoiling board
we can then take the offset to the other edge.
After marking and shaping the strike, it has to be steamed to make it pliable enough
to fit round the sharp curve of the bow.
Now come forward.
And each plank is nailed in place.
Copper boat nails are riveted over copper washers.
Square washers have had to be handmade
because the machinery to mass produce round ones had not been invented in Bly's time.
The breast hooks, knees and thoughts have to be cut, shaped and fitted.
The joints between the planks are waterproofed with corking, cotton and putty
and the whole boat is given a coat of wood preservative, two coats of primer,
two undercoats and two topcoats.
There we are, a bargain at £50,000.
Of course, labour was a lot cheaper in Bly's time.
A ship's launch would probably have cost £15.
But there again, a shipwright would only have earned six pence a day.
Still, with the Napoleonic Wars about to start, there would have been plenty of work to come.
