a Scandinavian country which set aside an island for growing big trees for making wooden warships in the 1900s, which was completely wrong since by that point, warships had switched to metal, and so the island became a nature preserve;
This was probably Sweden planting lots of oaks in the early 19th century. 34 000 oaks were planted on Djurgården for shipbuilding in 1830. As it takes over a hundred years for the oak to mature, they weren’t used and that bit of the Island is now a nature preserve. Quite funny is that when the parliament was deciding this issue, it seems some of the members already doubted whether oak would remain a good material to build ships from for so long.
Also observe that 1900s ≠ 19th century, so they weren’t that silly.
Had some trouble finding English references for this, but this (p 4) gives some history and numbers are available in Swedish Wikipedia.
Quite possible. I didn’t intend for that sentence to come across in a hostile way.
Since in Swedish we usually talk about the 1800s and the 1900s instead of the 19th and 20th century, I thought something could have been lost in translation somewhere between the original sources, the book by Kelly and gwern’s comment, which is itself ambiguous as to whether it is intended as (set aside an island for growing big trees for making wooden warships) (in the 1900s) or as (set aside an island for growing big trees for (making wooden warships in the 1900s)). (I assumed the former)
This was probably Sweden planting lots of oaks in the early 19th century. 34 000 oaks were planted on Djurgården for shipbuilding in 1830. As it takes over a hundred years for the oak to mature, they weren’t used and that bit of the Island is now a nature preserve. Quite funny is that when the parliament was deciding this issue, it seems some of the members already doubted whether oak would remain a good material to build ships from for so long.
Also observe that 1900s ≠ 19th century, so they weren’t that silly.
Had some trouble finding English references for this, but this (p 4) gives some history and numbers are available in Swedish Wikipedia.
I guess gwern meant the construction was planned to take place in the 1900s.
Quite possible. I didn’t intend for that sentence to come across in a hostile way.
Since in Swedish we usually talk about the 1800s and the 1900s instead of the 19th and 20th century, I thought something could have been lost in translation somewhere between the original sources, the book by Kelly and gwern’s comment, which is itself ambiguous as to whether it is intended as (set aside an island for growing big trees for making wooden warships) (in the 1900s) or as (set aside an island for growing big trees for (making wooden warships in the 1900s)). (I assumed the former)