Ship design-knowledge in early modern Europe: Royal yachts and the shared knowledge of ship-designers and common shipwrights

Abstract

The initial objective of this thesis aimed at comparing the performance characteristics of two yachts belonging to King Charles II of England during the latter years of the 17th century. This goal, which called for accurate modelling of the shape of each yacht, was extended to investigate the design processes used by Dutch and English shipwrights of the period. It was soon decided that, instead of focusing on the performance of each ship or, more precisely, of their theoretical ‒therefore questionable‒ reconstruction, this research would focus on the design knowledge of the early modern period used to design the different yachts and contemporary ships. This was necessary, firstly, as a means of helping with the theoretical reconstruction which was one of the initial aims of the research. But, most importantly, it was necessary to produce a picture of the knowledge-space in which ships of this period were designed and built. Consequently, this research offers an overview of the current narrative that describes ship design knowledge of the early modern period and criticises some aspects of it. Moreover, as the current understanding of such knowledge is included within a longer narrative that describes ship design knowledge of shipwrights from the earliest known examples of ships to the present, this research also looks into the manner in which ship design knowledge is understood within such a long narrative. This research provides arguments to show that ship design knowledge could be re-defined. It provides a more nuanced description of the design knowledge of traditional shipwrights and includes the knowledge of early modern shipwrights within this re-modelled narrative.

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Identifiers

ORCID for Maria Hayward: orcid.org/0000-0002-3299-4383

ORCID for Dominic Hudson: orcid.org/0000-0002-2012-6255

ORCID for Julian Whitewright: orcid.org/0000-0002-3548-0978

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