any "big names", personalities, etc in navy ship design?

Discussion in 'Boat Design' started by Squidly-Diddly, Oct 28, 2013.

  1. Squidly-Diddly
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    Squidly-Diddly Senior Member

    From ANY era?

    Are they all designed 'by committee', and by committees who very much don't want their inner thought process made public, and that is why we don't really have 'names' connected with ships the way we do with airplanes?


    That TV boat building/design show project got me wondering.

    There must have been some major arguments at some point, like the butt ugly HMS Rodney class battleships.(yeah, I know they were designed to squeeze in under treaty restrictions)

    Does "the Admiralty" lay out specs such that there isn't much room for 'design'? Like "chief of surgery" giving the specs for an operating room.
     
  2. philSweet
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    philSweet Senior Member

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Pepys

    He was the Admiralty. You did say from any era.:p

    Somebody even named a nonexistent island after him. Anyone who gets brown-nosed like that has to rate. Hmm - which is more indicative of power, getting a real island named after you or having somebody invent an island to name after you?
     
  3. daiquiri
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    daiquiri Engineering and Design

    I was ignorant of that person till now. Then I read that Wiki page and, the way his story was written there, his life story seem to be a good potential subject for the next Disney movie. :p
    But it doesn't look like he was a naval architect or ship designer... ;)
     
  4. jehardiman
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    jehardiman Senior Member

  5. DCockey
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    DCockey Senior Member

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederik_Henrik_af_Chapman "Fredrik Henrik af Chapman (September 9, 1721 in Gothenburg – August 19, 1808) was a Swedish shipbuilder, scientist and officer in the Swedish navy. He was also manager of the Karlskrona shipyard 1782-1793. Chapman is credited as the first person to apply scientific methods to shipbuilding and is considered to be the first naval architect."

    Joshua Humphreys Builder of the USS Constitution.

    John Ericsson Designer and Builder of the USS Monitor. Mariners Museum in Hampton, Virginia has the Monitor's turret and a great exhibit which includes the story of the design of the Monitor.

    Edit: jehardiman already listed Humphreys and Ericsson.
     
  6. El_Guero

    El_Guero Previous Member

    Let me see?

    Secrecy?
     
  7. lohring
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    lohring Junior Member

    Hyman G. Rickover was still a major force in nuclear submarines when I worked at Electric Boat in the late 1960s. A physically small man with an outsized influence, he was idolized by submariners and feared by admirals. He definitely did it his way.

    Lohring Miller
     
  8. jehardiman
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    jehardiman Senior Member

  9. dougfrolich
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    dougfrolich Senior Member

    John W. Griffiths maybey not specifically known for Naval Ships but a great personality in Ship building and Design during the mid/late 1800's.
    Great reads are:
    The Progressive Ship Builder
    Ship builders Manual
    Theory and Practice blended in ship building

    all available for download thru google
     
  10. daiquiri
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    daiquiri Engineering and Design

    Very interesting reading, thank you.
     
  11. jehardiman
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    jehardiman Senior Member

    If you want to know more about the "wiley old gentleman" you should read his "Doing a Job" (1981) essay which is a condemnation of american industral management practice. (I give a copy with highlighted points to all the new engineers in my branch). When I first started in the shipyards, many engineers were "Rickover's people". Now there are few of us left who still follow the "rules", which is why the US Navy has had such a pitiful engineering record the last 20 years.

    Here is my list of the "rules" I hand out with the essay.

    Rickover's Engineering Principles Summarized:

    • Face facts brutally
    • Pay attention to detail
    • Enforce standards
    • Focus on effectiveness
    • Do not "live with" deficiencies
    • Formally document and communicate all actions
    • Ensure thorough involvement and review by senior personnel
    • Conduct frequent and thorough independent self-assessments, inspections, and audits
    • Be conservative in design and operation of critical systems
    • Perform with verbatim compliance to approved technical procedures
    • Think long term; cradle to grave ownership and costs
    • Be dedicated to and own the outcome
    • Maintain a questioning attitude
    • Select, train and qualify the best people, dedicated to excellence
     
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  12. NavalSArtichoke
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    NavalSArtichoke Senior Member

    David Taylor - developed model testing of ships in the US, especially for the USN
    John C. Niedermaier - invented the LST design and worked on many other WWII USN designs
    Sir William White - Leading UK RN designer, late Victorian Period
     
  13. Waterwitch
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    Waterwitch Senior Member

    The US Navy awards the Herreshoff Manufacturing Co. a contract to build the Navy’s first ocean-going torpedo boat. The 138-foot CUSHING and its two five-cylinder quadruple-expansion engines are designed by Nathanael G. Herreshoff.
     

  14. El_Guero

    El_Guero Previous Member

    What? Do you really mean the decades of cutbacks to waste money elsewhere has had a negative impact upon readiness?

    Say it is not SO!

    :D

    Of, course when Jimmy (*) turned on his old boss, I knew the Navy was in trouble from that point on ....

    (*) Mr. Carter that is.
     
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