The store of timber maintained at Woolwich Dockyard suitable for ship-building was as follows, viz.:—
| In the years | English Oak. | Foreign timber, or Substitutes for Oak. |
Total. |
| Loads. | Loads. | Loads. | |
| 1840 | 1,591 | 936 | 2,527 |
| 1845 | 1,029 | 2,196 | 3,945 |
| 1850 | 1,259 | 3,693 | 4,952 |
| 1855 | 1,868 | 4,596 | 6,464 |
| 1860 | 857 | 6,977 | 7,834 |
| 1865 | 5,490 | 14,077 | 19,567 |
The smallest quantity of English Oak at that yard at any one time within the thirty years ending in 1867 was 857 loads in 1860, and the largest 5,490 loads in 1865; while the smallest stock of foreign timber in store for use as substitutes for Oak was 936 in 1840, and the largest 16,771 loads in 1863. The smallest store of ship-building timber of all kinds held there during the same period was 2,356 loads in 1841, and the largest 21,012 loads in 1863.
The relative quantities of English Oak and its substitutes were kept up at all the yards, in proportion to the magnitude of the several naval establishments, and in 1860 there was the large quantity of 35,800 loads in the various stores, suitable for ship-building, exclusive of Elm, Fir, and Pine timber and plank; and this was very largely supplemented by later deliveries.
