UNIVERSITY EDUCATION IN SHIP CONSTRUCTION AND 
MARINE TRANSPORTATION. 
By ProFessor LAWRENCE B. CHapMAN, MEMBER. 
[Read at the twenty-eighth general meeting of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, held in New 
York, November 11 and 12, 1920.] 
As a contribution to America’s merchant marine, a course in naval archi- 
tecture has recently been inaugurated at Lehigh University along lines widely 
different from other university courses. The main feature which differentiates 
this course from others offered in this country and abroad is the introduction of a 
substantial amount of economics and business administration subjects. These 
subjects are built upon a solid basis of engineering education. 
The aim of the course is to prepare men to meet the future requirements of 
shipbuilding and shipping—men well trained in engineering and the elements of 
shipping, yet who will be prepared, if the opportunity offers, to enter executive 
positions in these fields. If the engineering student is given a broad training in 
the fundamentals of engineering, applied economics and business management, 
then spends several years following his graduation in practical work and in engi- 
neering designing and construction, and at the same time keeps in touch with the 
problems of management and economics, he will not hesitate to assume the larger 
responsibility of executive work when opportunity offers. 
In the scheme of studies the course follows generally the engineering courses 
at Lehigh, except that, as already noted, business administration subjects have 
been made prominent. 
In introducing these new subjects to the curriculum we have not slighted in 
the least the basic engineering studies. We have, however, dropped out much of 
the advanced specialized work often included in courses in naval architecture. 
For instance, in marine engineering, the theory and practice of steam, Diesel and 
marine engineering is given vigorous treatment, yet little time is spent on recip- 
tocating engine and turbine design—much of which is of an empirical nature. 
The method of design and those features that require theoretical treatment are 
covered, but the details and empirical methods are left for the student who wishes 
to follow marine engineering to learn in the industry, where they can be taught in 
a more thorough and satisfactory manner than in the university. 
In such subjects as ship design, however, we carry through a design of a cargo 
ship in order to drive home the principles of naval architecture and ship construc- 
tion and also to make sure that the student is thoroughly familiar with the prin- 
cipal tool of any branch of shipping he may enter—the ship. 
Considerable time is saved in subjects of this nature by dividing up the cal- 
culations among several students. For instance, in obtaining the stability curves 
