David Andrews is professor of engineering design at University College London. His MoD career encompassed nuclear submarine design, the Invincible class aircraft carriers and early concept work on HMS Albion, HMS Bulwark and HMS Ocean. In 2020, RINA awarded him the William Froude Medal, its highest individual honour.

 

Why a career in naval architecture?

I have wanted to design ships since before I was eight when I was driving a pilot cutter in the summer of 1955 in the Bay of Port Philip, off Melbourne.

 

How has the industry changed since you started – for better and worse?

The ‘them and us’ between the management and the blue collar workforce used to be appalling, but the industry is now a cooperative endeavour where skills are respected, even if the City and government fail to recognise its worth.

 

What’s the most underrated skill in naval architecture?

Modern naval architects are highly capable users of computer-based technologies but lack the sense of life at sea for our end users. I was, as a naval constructor, educated in part alongside the Royal Navy and went to sea with them before designing ships and submarines. That time took in frigates, including full work-up and service off Iceland during the 1971 Cod War, a mine hunter, submarines, and a helicopter carrier.

 

Who in the industry do you most admire, and why?

Young women naval architects, whose excellent personal management qualities are sorely needed.

 

Which vessel do you wish you’d worked on, and why?

The 1950s Dreadnought submarine project with its lead designer, Louis Rydill. He was my professor at UCL and later my PhD supervisor and he had a profound understanding of ship design.

 

What’s the best advice you have ever received and who gave it?

Louis Rydill had a phrase in judging the professionalism of colleagues in the wider profession and the measure of working with them. He said: “His heart is in the right place.” And it was the correct basis for good collaborative working, which is the essence of designing complex vessels.

 

If you could collaborate with a naval architect from history, who would it be?

I am torn between three. First, Louis Rydill. Second, Sir Rowland Baker, whose career from the start of the Second World War to directing both the Dreadnought and Polaris submarine projects showed that technical design skill needs to be matched by management of a project’s acquisition strategy. Third, Sir Stanley Goodall, director of naval construction from 1936 to 1944.

LEARNING POINTS   Do your best But don’t succeed at the cost to your integrity.   “His heart is in the right place” Louis Rydill’s phrase is a good basis for collaborative working.   Design your ship inside out As examined in David Andrews’ article, The Sophistication of ESD of Complex Vessels.

 

What’s the biggest mistake you’ve made in your career, and what did it teach you?

Having witnessed, under protest, the mendacity of the senior administrators and the indifference of the uniform navy to the fate of the Royal Corps of Naval Constructors (RCNC), I finished my government service saddened by the state of the once proud Royal Navy and its ships.

 

The RCNC has a distinguished history stretching back centuries, and to see its standing deliberately diminished was deeply dispiriting. It taught me that our national decline was significantly due to engineers being denied the status that they need to exploit the talent that has been emasculated since the time of Brunel.

 

What advice would you give your 25-year-old self?

Do your best, but don’t succeed at the cost to your integrity.

 

If you had a naval architect motto, what would it be?

I wrote a paper 100 Things (or so) A Ship Designer Needs to Know that is full of mottos.

 

This article appeared in Members, TNA May/June 2026.