Pioneers of Ship Design

The design and construction of ships has evolved over thousands of years, to produce the largest and most complex moveable structures ever built by mankind. Without them to provide for the safe and efficient transport and recovery of the world's raw materials and products, modern society as we know it could not exist. However, in this evolution, the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries saw perhaps the most dramatic and significant changes to the design and construction of ships, when it became more of a science than an art. Such changes also took place at a time of great social and political change.

The design and construction of ships is essentially a team activity conducted by professional engineers in their respective fields and disciplines, in many countries. However, during this period, a number of individuals made a significant contribution and can rightly claim to have been "pioneers of ship design and construction". In most cases, whilst their achievements and lasting legacy may be familiar to those involved in the design and construction of ships, the individuals themselves are less well known, if at all.

In his pen portraits of such men and women, Fred Walker not only describes their achievements, but in doing so charts the development of ship design and construction, seen in the context of the social and economic change which shaped their lives and work.

Pioneers of Ship Design is a regular feature of RINA Affairs - the newsletter of the Royal Institution of Naval Architects.

Published in the June 2007 issue

Charles Mitchell (1820 - 1895)

Charles Mitchell was neither the first nor the last Aberdonian to make his mark in the vibrant shipyards of the River Tyne in the nineteenth century. As a young man, his dedication, his engineering background, his formal education and above all his optimism of spirit led him to the North East where he formed a shipbuilding business which in the fullness of time became the renowned Swan Hunter organisation.

Index

Pre 16th Century

Archimedes of Syracuse   (287-212BC)

16th Century

John Napier     (1550-1617)

17th Century

Sir Anthony Deane (1638-1721)

Peter Alekseyevich Romanov   (1672-1725)

Pierre Bouguer   (1698-1758)

18th Century

Thomas Simpson   (1710-1761)

Fredrik Henrik AF Chapman   (1721-1808)

John Wilkinson   (1728-1810)

John Schanck   (1740-1823)

Henrik Gerner   (1742-1787)

George Atwood   (1745-1807)

Marmaduke Stalkartt  (1750-1805)

Mark Beaufoy   (1764-1827)

Henry Bell   (1767-1830)

Sir Robert Seppings   (1767-1840)

Peter Barlow   (1776-1862)

Thomas Wilson   (1781-1873)

John Wood   (1788-1860)

Sir William Fairbain (1789-1874)

Robert Napier   (1791-1876)

19th Century

John Ericsson   (1803-1899)

Johyn Laird   (1805-1874)

Svend Foyn   (1808-1894)

Donald McKay   (1810-1880)

William George Armstrong (Lord Armstrong of Cragside) (1810-1900)

Stanislas-Charles-Henri Dupuy de Lome   (1816-1885)

William Wain   (1819-1882)

Charles Mitchell  (1820-1895)

David Kirkaldy   (1820-1897)

Thomas B Seath   (1820-1903)

Andrei Alexandrovitch Popoff (1821-1898)

Sir Charles Mark Palmer  (1822-1907)

Bernard Waymouth  (1824-1890)

Samual Plimsoll   (1824-1898)

Sir William Thomson-Lord Kelvin (1824-1907)

Isabella Elder   (1828-1905)

Barnaby Dynasty   (1829-1968)

Sir Edward J Harland  (1831-1895)

Colin Archer   (1832-1921)

James Howden   (1832-1931)

George Wightwick Rendel  (1833-1902)

Bruno Joannes Tideman  (1834-1883)

Joseph Russell   (1834-1917)

Hercules Linton   (1836-1900)

Nathaniel G Herreshoff  (1848-1938)

Frank Prior Purvis  (1850-1940)

Lennox Watson  (1851-1904)

George James Foster King  (1862-1947)

Frederick Lobnitz  (1863-1932)

David Watson Taylor  (1864-1940)

Sir James Caird   (1864-1954)

Oscar Kjellberg   (1870-1931)

Robert MacGregor  (1873-1956)

Guglielmo Marconi  (1874-1937)

Shirley Brooks Ralston  (1874-1952)

Sir Westcott Abel  (1877-1961)

Sir William Wallace  (1881-1963)

Vladimir Ivanovitch Yourkevich (1885-1964)

Ayre Brothers   (1885-1971)

Cuthbert Coulson Pounder (1891-1982)

20th Century

Hyman G Rickover  (1900-1986)

Susan Auld   (1915-2002)

Ben Lexcen   (1936-1988)