High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Nantucket Forests with tall trees had disappeared from the island millennia before colonial settlement. There were no large trees on Nantucket to provide long dimension timbers for ship building or building construction and importing Live oak from southern states was essential. However, in spite of little financial incentive, seven `large` ships were built and launched from Brant Point. Two Clipper ships were built for the Old China Trade and five whaling ships were built on Nantucket Island and they add a further chapter to the history of New England Shipbuilding and the History of whaling.