living in Dedham at the time the ship was being built. The Avery Oak at that time had limbs full of crooks and angles, which Lord Bacon called knee timber, and which was particularly required in ship building. Its massive trunk would also have yielded a good quantity of planking. Designer Joshua Humphreys specified white oak for the hull of the USS Constitution. Timber merchants from New Jersey to Maine scrambled to find old growth trees that had the straight trunks needed to cut long runs of plank, but also crooks and bends that could supply the hundreds of hanging, standing, and lodging knees needed to support deck beams. The ship builders, presumably Nicholson, made several offers to buy the tree, eventually rising to "the unheard of price of $70," but the owner would not sell. Local legend contends that it was Avery's wife who spared the tree. References History of Dedham, Massachusetts Parks in Dedham, Massachusetts Individual trees in Massachusetts