How were wooden ships (mostly of the 17th-19th century) heated, if they were heated at all?

by MerricatBlackwood01

I hope this is the right place to ask this question. How were wooden ships heated without burning the entire ship down? Or were they heated at all? And would the fuel (wood or peat) take up too much valuable space/weight and therefore be a bad idea in general? I do realize that cooking was done on wooden ships but that's a much smaller, more contained fire, I think?

esport5000

/u/jschooltiger provided an excellent answer on the question of heating here.

Regarding fuel space/weight: I'm not sure what type of fuel was used generally, but ships were certainly capable of carrying quite a bit of stuff:

When the New Bedford whaler, Benjamin Tucker, returned to home port in 1851, she carried:

  • 73,707 gallons of whale-oil;
  • 5,348 gallons of sperm oil;
  • 30, 012 pounds of whalebone (baleen).

If they used wood, it wouldn't take up too much space. A cord of wood, which is 128 cubic feet, can be anywhere from 2-5,000 pounds (depending on the type of wood and whether or not it's green).^2

Sources:

  1. New Bedford Whaling Museum, Whales and Hunting
  2. University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Institute of Agriculture and Natural resources, Heating With Wood