The Royal Navy's eighteenth-century timber crisis

Was the Royal Navy's eighteenth-century timber crisis a political fiction used to win more funding?

It was politically useful, but the underlying danger came from poor administration and incomplete knowledge of timber stocks rather than a wholly invented shortage.

The Navy knew about timber at its source and in dockyard stores but lacked a reliable account of wood moving between them. That gap made a future shortage appear plausible and drove administrative reform. Better tracking subsequently showed that the position was less severe than feared. The crisis was also used politically to obtain money and ships. The comparison with midshipmen illustrates the same weakness in central control: young officers could join a ship before the Admiralty gained control over their careers through the lieutenant's examination.