154 
NATURE 
| DECEMBER 13, 1go6 
for the pursuits of naval architecture and marine 
engineering, and to raise the scientific standard and 
professional status of those important branches of 
engineering. 
Edward James Reed born at Sheerness in 
September, 1830. He received a thorough practical 
training in the Royal Dockyard there, and was after- 
wards a student of the School of Mathematics and 
Naval Construction in Portsmouth Dockyard, where 
he received the highest education in the science of 
naval architecture that was obtainable in this country. 
On passing out of the Portsmouth school he was 
given a subordinate appointment in Sheerness Dock- 
yard, but he resigned this in 1852, and went out into 
the world to seek his fortune. He became editor of 
the Mechanics’ Magazine, and soon began to play an 
active part in literary and scientific circles. One of 
his greatest services to the cause of naval science 
was rendered in connection with the foundation of 
the Institution of Naval Architects in January, 1860. 
This would hardly have been practicable, at that 
time, but for the devotion and ability with which 
Mr. Reed performed the onerous duties of honorary 
secretary during the period of organisation, and those 
of secretary for three years after. 
Mr. E. J. Reed was appointed Chief Constructor 
of the Navy in July, 1863. This appointment followed 
upon proposals he had made some time before for 
improving the design of ironclad ships. The earliest 
ironclads of the Warrior, Minotaur, and other classes 
were found to be imperfect and unsatisfactory, and 
Mr. Reed proposed a radical change of design by 
limiting the armoured portion of the hull to what was 
merely sufficient for the proper protection of its vital 
parts—such as the compartments containing the 
boilers, machinery and magazines, the gun battery, 
the rudder head and steering gear, and the water- 
line area before and abaft the gun battery. This 
became famous as the ‘belt and battery’? system, 
and it is, in principle, the system adopted in the 
design of battleships and armoured cruisers to-day. 
It enables the thickness of armour to be in- 
creased to a maximum upon a given size of ship, 
and admits of the application of thick armour to 
ships of smaller dimensions than would otherwise be 
requisite. The wooden ships Enterprise, Favourite, 
and Research were ordered by the Admiralty to be 
converted in accordance with Mr. Reed’s pro- 
posals in 1862, and the design of the Bellerophon 
followed immediately after he took office in 1863. The 
last-named was the first of a continually progressive 
series of historical ships that led in direct line to the 
last of our armourclads which fought their guns upon 
the broadside; while the Devastation, the last battle- 
ship designed at the Admiralty by Sir Edward Reed; 
is the first in the series of sea-going battleships, 
the heaviest guns of which are placed in turrets on 
deck, which now reaches its latest development in 
the Dreadnought. In these typical designs the lines 
which future progress in battleship design would 
take are clearly indicated. The design of the struc- 
ture of the hull in the Bellerophon was novel and 
ingenious. It has been followed in all subsequent 
battleships and cruisers for the British Navy, and 
adopted all over the world. An important factor in 
Mr. Reed’s success at the Admiralty, which the writer 
frequently heard him mention, was that he had as 
his principal assistants Messrs. Barnaby (his successor 
for fifteen years as Chief Constructor of the Navy), 
Barnes, and Crossland, the best of his old fellow- 
students at the Portsmouth school. He always said 
that without the aid of men of the highest scientific 
and technical training, as they were, his achievements 
would have been impossible. The value of their 
NO. 1037. VO. 75 | 
was 
scientific knowledge and ability in dealing with the 
new and difficult problems in naval construction that 
were then continually presenting themselves for solu- 
tion was so manifest as to furnish one of the strongest 
proofs to the Board of Admiralty of the necessity of 
maintaining an efficient school of naval architecture. 
Space will not admit of detailed reference to 
Mr. Reed’s work at the Admiralty during the 
seven years 1863-1870, but evidence of his great 
activity and energy there, and of the scientific value 
of his work, may be found in the Transactions of the 
Institution of Naval Architects for those years. He 
left the Admiralty in July, 1870—as the result of the 
non-acceptance of his views respecting the height of 
freeboard requisite for sailing ironclads the principal 
guns of which were placed in turrets on deck—and 
practised as a naval architect from that time almost 
to the last day of his life. Almost immediately after 
he left office the correctness of his views with regard 
to low-freeboard sailing ships was proved in a tragic 
manner by the loss of the Captain. He was held 
in high repute all over the world, and designed 
famous warships for the German, Japanese, Chilian, 
and other foreign Governments. The last of these 
with which the long-familiar name of Sir E. J. 
Reed is connected are the Libertad and Con- 
stitucion, built for the Chilian Government by 
the Elswick and Vickers firms respectively, which 
now form part of our own navy under the names 
Triumph and Swiftsure. These ships have attracted 
much attention in naval circles because of the high 
speed and great fighting power they possess upon 
comparatively moderate dimensions, and they have 
proved most successful on service. Sir Edward Reed 
was also naval architect for the Indian Government 
and the Government of the Crown Colonies, and 
designed many successful ships of various classes for 
those Governments. 
Sir Edward Reed was a strenuous advocate, as we 
have said, of scientific and technical education. The 
School of Naval Construction at Portsmouth, at which 
he was educated, was abolished by the Admiralty in 
1853, but he joined with other leading members of 
the Institution of Naval Architects in 1863 to urge 
upon the Admiralty the necessity for establishing 
another school for the scientific training of young 
naval architects and marine engineers for the 
Admiralty service, and also for the mercantile ship- 
yards of the country. This action resulted in the 
foundation of the Royal School of Naval Architecture 
and Marine Engineering at South Kensington in 
1864, to which most of the leading naval architects 
and marine engineers of to-day owe their scientific 
training. Mr. Reed, as Chief Constructor of the 
Navy, never failed to promote the interests of this 
school. He was one of its best and most popular 
lecturers; and those who passed through the school 
at that time owe to him their first appointments to 
responsible posts, in which their qualities could be 
tested, and their early professional advancement. 
In 1873 Sir Edward (then Mr.) Reed contested un- 
successfully the Borough of Hull at a Parliamentary 
election. He was returned for the Pembroke 
Boroughs in 1874 and for Cardiff in 1880, and sat 
continuously in the House of Commons from 1874 to 
1895, and from ro9o0o until last year, when he retired 
from Parliamentary life. He was made a C.B. in 
1868 and K.C.B. in 1880, and served as member, and 
sometimes as chairman, of many important com- 
mittees. He was chairman of the Load-line Com- 
mittee of 1884, which first made legislation for regu- 
lating the depth of loading of ships successful in 
practice, and of the Manning of Ships Committee of 
1894. He was also the Government Commissioner 
