The teak used by the Royal Navy did not come from China. Instead, it came from British India, and especially the Malabar coast and the colony of Burma. While Burma was invaded by the Japanese, the teak forests of Malabar remained fully under British control. As a result the RN, and Allied forces, could get the teak they needed: the teak forests of British India had been built up to provide teak for the RN during the age of sail, and were more than capable of providing the comparably small needs for decks during WWII. However, wood was not the most efficient thing to ship, and was expensive to work and shape. As such, the RN moved away from teak decks for several classes of escorts. Decks were left as bare steel. This was not entirely successful, with the ships being rather uncomfortable to live aboard; on ships with wooden decks, the wood insulated the ships. The RN also used bare steel decks for its carriers, to remove the fire risk. The Nelson class battleships originally completed with a fir deck - this was not because of a teak shortage, but because of a desire to save weight by using a lighter wood. The fir did not stand up to the blast of the guns, and was soon replaced with teak.