How the introduction of steam, iron, and steel required new rules and
new ways of thinking for the design and building of ships.
In the 1800s, shipbuilding moved from sail and wood to steam, iron, and
steel. The competitive pressure to achieve more predictable ocean
transportation drove the industrialization of shipbuilding, as
shipowners demanded ships that enabled tighter scheduling, improved
performance, and safe delivery of cargoes. In Bridging the Seas, naval
historian Larrie Ferreiro describes this transformation of shipbuilding,
portraying the rise of a professionalized naval architecture as an
integral part of the Industrial Age.
Picking up where his earlier book, Ships and Science, left off,
Ferreiro explains that the introduction of steam, iron, and steel
required new rules and new ways of thinking for designing and building
ships. The characteristics of performance had to be first measured, then
theorized. Ship theory led to the development of quantifiable standards
that would ensure the safety and quality required by industry and
governments, and this in turn led to the professionalization of naval
architecture as an engineering discipline. Ferreiro describes, among
other things, the technologies that allowed greater predictability in
ship performance; theoretical developments in naval architecture
regarding motion, speed and power, propellers, maneuvering, and
structural design; the integration of theory into ship design and
construction; and the emergence of a laboratory infrastructure for
research.
