Ships and Science ─ The Birth of Naval Architecture in the Scientific Revolution, 1600-1800

"Naval architecture was born in the mountains of Peru, in the mind of a Frenchastronomer named Pierre Bouguer who never built a ship in his life." So writes Larrie Ferreiro atthe beginning of this pioneering work on the science of naval architecture. Bouguer's monumentalbook Traite du navire (Treatise of the Ship) founded a discipline that defined not the rules forbuilding a ship but the theories and tools to predict a ship's characteristics and performancebefore it was built. In Ships and Science, Ferreiro argues that the birth of naval architectureformed an integral part of the Scientific Revolution. Using Bouguer's work as a cornerstone,Ferreiro traces the intriguing and often unexpected development of this new discipline and describesits practical application to ship design in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Drawing onpreviously untapped primary-source and archival information, he places the development of navalarchitecture in the contexts of science, navy, and society, across the major shipbuilding nations ofBritain, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, and Italy.Ferreiro describes theformulation of the three major elements of ship theory (the science of explaining the physicalbehavior of a ship): maneuvering and sail theory, ship resistance and hydrodynamics, and stabilitytheory. He considers the era's influential books on naval architecture and describes theprofessionalization of ship constructors that is the true legacy of this period. Finally, lookingfrom the viewpoints of both the constructor and the naval administrator, he explains why thedevelopment of ship theory was encouraged, financed, and used in naval shipbuilding. A generousselection of rarely seen archival images accompanies the text.

Larrie D. Ferreiro is a naval architect and historian. He trained and worked as a naval architect in the U.S., British, and French navies and the U.S. Coast Guard, and has served as technical expert for the International Maritime Organization. He has a Ph.D. in the History of Science and Technology from Imperial College, London.