Fred M. Walker – författare

A pocket history of one of Britain's key industries in the early twentieth century.At their zenith in 1913, the British shipyards were responsible for building half the world's ships, with the River Clyde in Scotland producing more than one new ship for every day of the year. For decades either side of this amazing year, Britain was at the forefront of this industry, which dominated not only the history but also the economy of areas like northeast England, the River Thames, Northern Ireland, Merseyside and Scotland: the efforts of hundreds of thousands of specialised workmen were dedicated to delivering efficient and finely crafted vessels.Shipbuilding in Britain outlines the history of the industry, focusing on the heyday of iron and steel hulls in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and is a comprehensive guide to ship construction from the draftboard to the completion of sea trials.

In the past three centuries the ship has developed from the relatively unsophisticated sail-driven vessel which would have been familiar to the sailors of the Tudor navy, to the huge motor-driven container ships, nuclear submarines and vast cruise liners that ply our seas today. Who were the innovators and builders who, during that span of time, prompted and instigated the most significant advances?In the past three centuries the ship has developed from the relatively unsophisticated sail-driven vessel which would have been familiar to the sailors of the Tudor navy, to the huge motor-driven container ships, nuclear submarines and vast cruise liners that ply our seas today. Who were the innovators and builders who, during that span of time, prompted and instigated the most significant advances?In this new book the author describes the lives and deeds of more the 120 great engineers, scientists, philosophers, businessmen, shipwrights, naval architects and inventors who shaped ship design and shipbuilding world wide. Covering the story chronologically, and going back briefly even to Archimedes, such well-known names as Anthony Deane, Peter the Great, James Watt, Robert Fulton and Isambard Kingdom Brunel share space with lesser known characters like the luckless Frederic Sauvage, a pioneer of screw propulsion who, unable to interest the French navy in his tests in the early 1830s, was bankrupted and landed in debtors prison. With the inclusion of such names as Ben Lexcen, the Australian yacht designer who developed the controversial winged keel for the 1983 Americas Cup, the story is brought right up to date.Concise linking chapters place all these innovators in context so that a clear and fascinating history of the development of ships and shipbuilding emerges from the pages. An original and important new reference book.