Naval Architecture
Naval architecture, the art and science of designing boats and ships to perform the missions and to meet the requirements laid down by the prospective owners and operators. It involves knowledge of mechanics, hydrostatics, hydrodynamics, steady and unsteady body motion, strength of materials, and design of structures.
Featured Articles
John Scott Russell
John Scott Russell was a British civil engineer best known for researches in ship design. He designed the first seagoing battleship built entirely of iron. A graduate of the University of Glasgow (at age...
William Francis Gibbs
William Francis Gibbs was a naval architect and marine engineer who directed the mass production of U.S. cargo ships during World War II, designed the famous, standardized cargo-carrying Liberty ships,...
Sir Samuel Bentham
Sir Samuel Bentham British engineer, naval architect, and navy official in Russia (1780–91) and England (from 1795) who was an early advocate of explosive-shell weapons for warships. Bentham led Russian...
William Henry Webb
William Henry Webb American naval architect, one of the most versatile and successful shipbuilders of his day, who in 1889 established and endowed the Webb Institute of Naval Architecture at Glen Cove,...
Sir John Isaac Thornycroft
Sir John Isaac Thornycroft was an English naval architect and engineer who made fundamental improvements in the design and machinery of torpedo boats and built the first torpedo boat for the Royal Navy....
Joshua Humphreys
Joshua Humphreys was an American shipbuilder and naval architect who designed the U.S. frigate Constitution, familiarly known as “Old Ironsides” (launched Oct. 21, 1797). Humphreys was commissioned in...
Robert Livingston Stevens
Robert Livingston Stevens was a U.S. engineer and ship designer who invented the widely used inverted-T railroad rail and the railroad spike. He tested the first steamboat to use screw propellers, built...
John Willis Griffiths
John Willis Griffiths was an American naval architect who created the first extreme clipper ship, the Rainbow, which was designed to engage in the China trade. The Rainbow was launched in 1845 and began...
David Watson Taylor
David Watson Taylor was an American marine architect who built the first ship-model testing establishment in the United States at the Washington (D.C.) Navy Yard, and formulated basic principles of ship...
naval architecture
Naval architecture, the art and science of designing boats and ships to perform the missions and to meet the requirements laid down by the prospective owners and operators. It involves knowledge of mechanics,...
William Froude
William Froude was an English engineer and naval architect who influenced ship design by developing a method of studying scale models propelled through water and applying the information thus obtained...
Olin James Stephens II
Olin James Stephens II was an American naval architect who was designer, skipper, and navigator of the yacht Dorade, the winner of the 1931 Transatlantic and Fastnet races, and who was codesigner and relief...
John Ericsson
John Ericsson was a Swedish-born American naval engineer and inventor who built the first armoured turret warship and developed the screw propeller. After serving in the Swedish army as a topographical...
Donald McKay
Donald McKay was a Canadian-born naval architect and builder of the largest and fastest of the clipper ships. After emigrating to New York City in 1827, he worked as an apprentice to the ship carpenter...
B. F. Isherwood
B. F. Isherwood was a U.S. naval engineer who, during the American Civil War, greatly augmented the U.S. Navy’s steam-powered fleet. The son of a physician, Isherwood attended Albany (N.Y.) Academy (1831–36)...