What shrinks wood?

Question

There's a poem:

water, water, everywhere,
And all the boards did shrink;
water, water, everywhere,
Nor any drop to drink.

Why did the boards shrink? (They are in the sea)

Answer 1

timber expands and contracts in differential types of weather naturally

however, the boards shrinking is due to them being soaked extensively, and when they get a chance to dry in direct sunlight, they actually splinter and separate... (combination from salts also drying them too)

Eventually wearing away where waves have crashed against them

Answer 2

Agree with Sangmo that the poem is refering to the deck boards.

As a point of science, the boards (all wood) will shrink when it loses it's natural (tree) moisture and dries out. It's simply a question of the volume of water held in the fibers of the wood. As it evaporates, the volume of the wood is less (otherwise called shrinkage).

In architecture & construction, we cannot build in wood until we have shrinkage under control, or at least, at a "stable" point. Most codes allow us to use the wood for construction when internal moisture is no higher than 19% of volume for "dimension lumber" and 15% for plywoods.

The problem gets huge in how a building (with shrinking members) crawls and creates more problems, etc.

The other significant piece of the poem's situation is the salts. The salt air will have a shrinkage effect, too, but evaporation of the wood's natural moisture is the bigger issue initially. Over long periods, the salt will play a bigger role in wood shrinkage.
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Answer 3

Wood shrinks when the water and natural oils and alcohols within and between the fibres, evaporate away. I you were in a wooden boat, continually exposed to hot sunlight I imagine that the sight of the exposed boards slowly shrinking and warping day by day would be a bitter reminder of just how much water the sun was robbing from your body.

Answer 4

These are famous lines from the Rime of the Ancient Mariner, by Coleridge. I would interpret "and all the boards did shrink" to refer to the deck planking, not the hull, which although usually kept moist by frequent splashing of waves, is subject to unusually dry, hot conditions at this point in the story, and therefore shrinks, leaving noticeable gaps between the planks. A great poem.

Answer 5

The salt in the air along with the heat of the sun, shrinks the wood.

Answer 6

Hello:

The boards did the shrinking. Realizing that, the poem takes on new meaning.

Answer 7

Coleridge was evidently trying to emphasize that it was so dry (that they ran out of drinking water and had only seawater that can not quench thirst) from being stranded without wind or rain so long that even the boards (above sea level!) lost their normal moisture and shrank. That is called poetic license and few would revoke his, right? I feel parched just thinking about it.

Answer 8

These are the deck boards of a ship and they shrank in the heat of the sun

Answer 9

salt