Rot

Fungi are of course nature's recycling squad and can break down the toughest of bio-molecules, including the lignin that makes up wood. They play a major role in the decay of dead things, dust to dust, ashes to ashes.

Sometimes however they can be a bit of a nuisance when they start recycling things that we would rather not have broken up. They were, for example, a major problem to the Royal Navy in the days when our fleet was wooden. The ships' holds were damp often with water slopping around in the interior for prolonged periods and the 'Hearts of Oak' that made up the British Fleet were often rotting at the core. In 1684 Samuel Pepys, the diarist, was contracted by the Admiralty Board to survey and inspect the British fleet with particular attention to be paid to 30 new ships that lay at harbour at Chatham. The results of the survey were truly depressing, as Pepys recorded:

"The greatest part of these thirty ships (without having yet lookt out of Harbour) were let to sink in such Distress, through Decays contracted...lye in danger of sinking at their very Moorings". The planks were "in many places perish'd to powder" and the ships' sides were disguised by patching "than has usually been seen upon the coming in of a Fleet after a Battle". "Their Holds not clear'd or aird, but (for want of Gratings and opening their Hatches and Scuttles) suffer'd to heat and moulder, till I have with my own hands gather'd Toadstools growing in the most considerable of them, as big as my Fists."

Then there is the case of HMS Queen Charlotte, a Ship of the Line of 110 guns, launched in 1810. The Queen Charlotte rotted so quickly that it was necessary to rebuild her before she was even be commissioned for sea service. Repairs up to 1816 cost £94,499 which exceeded the original construction cost of £88,837 and by 1859 the total cost of repairs was a staggering £287,837, equivalent today to £183,000,000.

Yes, fungi can be a bit of a problem, even if they are quite beautiful to behold! Looks particularly rotten when zoomified.