[CynicalBear]

Every wooden boat leaks when first put in the water either after first being built or having been out of the water for an extended period. Don’t those dumb arses realize that the wood has to swell? If they seal it tight before putting it in the water it will fail when the wood swells when they do put it in the water.

[JRandomFreeper]

You would be amazed at the number of anthroplogists that I've cooked dinner for that had zero clue about the real world.

I generally heard "That's not possible" soon followed by "How the hell did you do that"?

/johnny

[submarinerswife]

Somebody has the same idea as you. If this is the issue, why couldn't the boat builders have figured it out?

From a post in the comments section on the site:

Hmm, it makes me wonder if they could have left it in the water a bit so that the wood swells and seals the cracks, then try and refloat it. That is how barrels work, it wouldn't be unreasonable for a boat to use the same idea.

[Bigg Red]

I was thinking about that, too. I am far from any technical knowledge, but I have been around boats all of my life.

Probably, the original builders set the finished boat in a marshy area to get the wood saturated with water, so that it would swell the seams shut.