I understood that "rotten" was partly a joke, but several books, articles and forumers still argue of the bad quality of french ships : green woods, untrained crews, misconceptions, ships built only to make number, that the dutch had to break-up, and so on.

I took the opportunity to give some elements.

James, thanks for the correction : I meant "broken up", not "deleted".

I read the story of dry rot in a recent book, I will come back wtih the references

Best regards,

Jean.