The Royal Institution of Naval Architects   1860 - 2010

Foreword by Trevor Blakeley CEng FRINA FIMarEST FIMechE,  Chief Executive Officer

"to promote and facilitate the exchange of technical and scientific information ... thereby to improve the design of ships"

In 1860, the Institution's mission statement -if the founding members would have recognised such a term -was "to promote and facilitate the exchange of technical and scientific information ... thereby to improve the design of ships", and of course, that has remained its aim over the past 150 years. Over that same period, there has been tremendous development of the naval architecture profession and the global maritime industry, to the extent that the founding members would perhaps not recognise. However, I am sure that they would approve of the significant contribution which the Institution has made to that development, both collectively as an international organisation and individually through the work of its members. It has been 150 years of which the Institution and its members can be rightly proud.

In this Commemorative Book, individuals give their personal views on the development of the naval architecture profession and of the maritime industry - not all in existence for the past 150 years Their views therefore provides a history of the Institution as reflected in the history of the naval architecture profession and the maritime industry over that period.

But of course, and as the past 150 years has shown, the naval architecture profession and the maritime industry will continue to evolve. This Commemorative Book therefore looks also forward - if not quite for the next 150 years - to what changes there might be in the future -a future which members today might not recognise. However, whatever that future, I am sure that when the history of the Institution comes to be written again, it will show that the Institution too has evolved, in order that it might still fulfill its mission statement "to promote and facilitate the exchange of technical and scientific information ... thereby to improve the design of ships"

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