Before timber was used, it was stored in sheds to allow it to season, or dry.  The louvers on the building allowed for ventilation into the shed, and the timber itself was stacked with adequate room for ventilation between the pieces.  A few of the survivors of these formerly commonplace buildings can be seen at Chatham.

     Before the construction of timber sheds in the 1770s, lumber was piled up wherever it was convenient and would sometimes rot before it was used.  When ship construction began on the slipway (or in the dry docks for larger ships), the lumber was ideally allowed to season further during a somewhat leisurely building process.

    A quick fleet building program to deal with wartime needs was therefore impractical.  Ships built with unseasoned wood during the Seven Years War ended up being a poor investment, being generally unserviceable during the American Revolution.  A properly built ship, however, could last fifty years.