Merchant ships and naval timber standards

How was wood made available for merchant ships, and did they use the same seasoned wood as the Royal Navy?

Merchant ships used a mixture of alternate woods, imports, rejected naval material, private timber, and East India Company teak, with shorter commercial payback expectations than naval ships.

The answer separates naval and merchant use of wood while treating both as substantial systems. Merchant builders appear to have used alternate woods such as pine, imported timber, rejected naval material, private supplies, and teak in East India Company ships. Teak-built East Indiamen could be formidable enough that French privateers had reason to fear them. The economic calculation also differed: a Royal Navy hull might be expected to serve for twenty or thirty years, while a merchant owner wanted the early voyages to repay the investment. Once the ship stopped earning or became unfit for sea, replacement could make more commercial sense than preserving a decades-long service life.