BOOK REVIEWS


Ships and Shipbuilders. Reviewed by Ian Buxton


Ships and Shipbuilders Written by Fred M Walker. Published in 2010 by Seaforth publishing as a hardback, 256pp, ISBN 9781848320727 £25


architects in RINA Affairs. This was, however, just the hors d’oeuvre, what we are now treated to is a full banquet, adding many more names to make a compendium of 135 illustrious men and one woman who have contributed to the evolution of ships and shipbuilding up to 2000. Not all are those we would class as naval


M


architects – there are also mathematicians, scientists, shipowners, industrialists, naval officers and marine engineers – even a head of state (Peter the Great, Tsar of Russia). Some names will be familiar like James Watt and William Froude and nearer our day, Hyman Rickover, others less so. Te book is divided into five periods,


Pre-1800, and then four 50-year blocks. Each starts with a useful summary of developments during the period, with a somewhat idiosyncratic chronology of key dates. Appropriately the first biography is Archimedes of Syracuse. Te remaining 23 pre-1800 names divide half and half British and continental pioneers. This period laid the practical and


theoretical foundations which enabled the next half century to develop both iron hulls and steam propulsion. Robert Napier, a shipbuilder and marine engineer, trained many notable engineers who reached the top of their profession. To a wider public, Isambard Kingdom Brunel will be the best known. Part 3 is sub-titled Naval Architecture


comes of Age 1850-1900. Here are those who refined the art and science into practical engineering – William Froude (builder of the first modern towing tank), William Rankine (whose textbook “Shipbuilding Teoretical and Practical” publicised the basics of ship structures and much else).


The Naval Architect July/August 2010 This period also saw the rise of the


industrialists who capitalised on their technical and business acumen to develop large companies. William Armstrong (hydraulic machinery to guns to ships), Charles Palmer (pioneer of steam colliers, forerunners of today’s bulk carriers, at whose works at Jarrow on the Tyne the iron ore entered at one end and the finished ship came out at the other), Edward Harland (whose name is perpetuated to this day coupled with Wolff in Belfast). Pioneer founders of the Institution get


a place, John Scott Russell, Rev Joseph Woolley, Edward Reed and Nathaniel Barnaby, who together with son Sydney and grandson Kenneth formed a notable dynasty – the latter writing the review of the Institution’s first hundred years. Tis period saw the growth of the classification societies, featuring Benjamin Martell and Bernard Waymouth, both of Lloyds Register who celebrate their 250th anniversary this year. Part 4 is entitled The World Wars 1900-1950, so perhaps not surprisingly features several associated with warships – Directors of Naval Construction William White and Philip Watts, and America’s David Taylor, he of the eponymous model basin. With the continuing growth in ship size and speed, propulsion machinery needed to develop much higher powers. So we read of


any members will have enjoyed reading Fred Walker’s pen portraits of pioneer naval


Charles Parsons and Carl de Laval of steam turbine fame, and Rudolf Diesel. Supporting technologies are not neglected – Oscar Kjellberg (welding), Robert Macgregor (steel hatch covers) plus one civil engineering contractor turned shipbuilder, Henry Kaiser who used his skills for the mass production of ships during WW2 in the USA. Part 5 A Global Profession 1950-2000 is


the shortest with but 12 worthies, now all deceased. So perhaps there will be room for others to be added later to this era. Well known authors include the prolific Edmund Telfer and Cuthbert Pounder, whose book Diesel Engines has gone through many editions. As well as ‘big ship’ folk, those associated with yachts or lifeboats or high speed craſt are not forgotten. It is noticeable that many subjects rose


to eminence at quite young ages, in an era when one talented individual really could make a difference. Maybe this accounts for the large proportion of Scotsmen who are featured, reflecting that the Clyde was the pre-eminent shipbuilding region of the world for the best part of a century. With today’s huge corporations and amorphous technical teams, a similar brilliant technical innovator has less opportunity of achieving worldwide recognition. Well researched by a knowledgeable author


who has drawn on many sources to create a readable and well produced compendium. Associated with each biography is a short list of the subject’s publications or papers related to his work or a published obituary – a source that will be increasingly denied to future writers, as most technical publications have ceased printing such. In some cases a design associated with the individual is illustrated, and in other cases a portrait, but overall there are disappointingly few of the latter. Tis is a book you can dip into in no


particular order and always find something of interest. Here are well known names you might wish to learn more about – Guglielmo Marconi, Samuel Plimsoll, or Clement Mackrow (he of the Naval Architects Pocket Book – no such compendium being available to today’s young naval architects). Overall a worthy tribute and an inspiration to naval architects everywhere. NA


71


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80