“Wait… if wood floats, why are pirate ships still at the bottom of the ocean?” 🙃 It sounds like a contradiction — but centuries-old shipwrecks are still lying deep underwater, and the reason has nothing to do with magic. Curious what really dragged them down? More context in the article below 👇
It might seem strange, but many old wooden ships from pirate times are still lying at the bottom of the ocean. Storms or attacks by sea raiders often caused these ships to go down, and treasure hunters still search for them today.
But if wood floats, how did these wooden ships end up underwater?
We know that wood naturally stays afloat, which is why loggers used to float timber down rivers. During the pirate era—roughly the 15th to 17th centuries—ships were built entirely from wooden boards.
Pirates usually didn’t leave captured ships intact. Most were intentionally destroyed and sunk. Once a ship had a hole in its side, it usually stayed down for two main reasons.
First, these ships carried heavy metal parts. The biggest weight came from cannons and cannonballs, which dragged the ship down. Second, the way the wood was treated back then wasn’t very advanced.
Shipbuilders used special substances to protect the wood, but without regular care, the treatment wore off. Over time, the wood would absorb water, lose its ability to float, and eventually start to rot and fall apart.
