March b, 1913] 



NATURE 



from wood shipbuilding to iron and steel ship- 

 building and from unarmoured to armoured ships. 



At this time the principal problems before the 

 Admiralty naval architects were : — (i) What was 

 the best method of constructing the armoured side 

 of ships of the line ; (2) what was the best method 

 of disposing the armament; and (3) whether on 

 the whole it was more advantageous to build a 

 comparative short vessel like Sir Edward Reed's 

 Bellerophon, notwithstanding the cost in machinery 

 and coal involved in propelling each ton of her 

 displacement, or to build such long fine-lined 

 vessels as the Warrior and Minotaur^ 



Even at this early stage of his career Sir Wil- 

 liam threw much light on these questions, and, in 

 addition, was of the utmost assistance to Sir 

 Edward Reed in the preparation of his famous 

 book, "Shipbuilding in Iron and Steel," published 

 in 1869. 



In 1870 Sir Edward Reed retired from his posi- 

 tion of Chief Constructor of the Navy, and a 

 Council of Construction, with Sir N. Barnaby 

 (then Mr. Barnaby) at its head, was appointed to 

 carry on the work of Admiralty naval construc- 

 tion. So valuable had been the work of Sir Wil- 

 liam White in the short time he had been at the 

 Admiralty that he was retained in the position he 

 had served in under Sir Edward Reed, and was 

 gradually entrusted with more and more important 

 work involving a continually increasing amount 

 of responsibility on his part, and from then to the 

 time of his leaving the Admiralty service in 1883 

 to become the head of the war shipbuilding depart- 

 ment of Sir W. G. Armstrong and Co., at Elswick- 

 on-Tyne, there was no work done by the Admiralty 

 designing staff in which he did not play a very- 

 large part, which in many cases was a leading 

 part. 



In 1871 he read his first paper before the Institu- 

 tion of Naval Architects, which had been prepared 

 by him with the assistance of Mr. W. John named 

 above, and was entitled, "On the Calculation 

 of the Stability of Ships, and Some Matters 

 of Interest Connected Therewith." 



This reading of papers before the Institution of 

 Naval Architects he kept up for many years. 

 They were always of first-rate importance ; many 

 of them dealt with semi-naval matters as distinct 

 from matters of naval architecture ; and the views 

 he put forward were always met with the greatest 

 respect. In addition to beginning in this period 

 the contribution of papers to the Institution of 

 Naval Architects, he commenced taking part in 

 the discussion of papers read by other persons at 

 the same institution, his first effort in this direc- 

 tion being in 1875 with respect to a paper by Mr. 

 William Froude on the graphic integration of a 

 ship's rolling, including the effect of resistance. 



During the period of 1869-83, now under con- 

 sideration, Sir William much interested himself in 

 the education of young naval architects, and 

 almost immediatelv on his appointment to the 

 Admiralty Office in 1869 he was appointed to suc- 

 ceed Mr. Crossland, a member of an earlier school 

 of naval architecture, as lecturer on naval design- 

 ing at the South Kensington school. This posi- 

 NO. 2262, VOL. 91] 



lion he retained for some years after the transfer 

 of the South Kensington School to Greenwich, 

 where the school still exists. 



While holding this position he, in conjunction 

 with Dr. T. Archer Hirst, the Director of Studies 

 at Greenwich, arranged a course of instruction in 

 naval architecture for the benefit of executive 

 naval officers, and the syllabus of instruction was 

 so well chosen and so wisely given effect to under 

 his guidance that large numbers of officers were 

 attracted to the classes, and the classes continue 

 in effective operation to this moment. 



He also at this time put forward a well-con- 

 sidered scheme for the formation of a Royal Corps 

 of Naval Constructors to replace the heterogene- 

 ous system then in force, and after some amount 

 of consideration on the part of the then Controller 

 of the Navy, Sir W. Houston Stewart, K.C.B., 

 and of a committee appointed for the purpose and 

 presided over by Sir T. Brassey (now Lord 

 Brassey), the Crown in 18S3, under an Order in 

 Council, graciously created the corps on the 

 footing it still holds. 



The chief designing work on which Sir William 

 was engaged in this earlier period of Admiralty 

 work, viz. 1869-83, was that of the famous 

 Inflexible, with two turrets in echelon each con- 

 taining two 16 in. muzzle-loading guns. The design 

 of this vessel excited very strong adverse criticism, 

 led by Sir Edward Reed. A specially competent 

 committee was appointed to report on the design, 

 and after long and exhaustive investigation — 

 much of it of a practical nature at sea on actual 

 ships, and in the experimental works of Mr. 

 Froude — the committee reported that the design 

 fully satisfied the conditions it set out to meet. 



This design was repeated on a smaller scale by 

 two vessels, the Ajax and Agamemnon, and 

 by two somewhat larger, viz. Colossus and 

 Edinburgh, although these were still much smaller 

 than Inflexible. On all these vessels Sir William 

 took a very prominent part, introducing into 

 Colossus and Edinburgh for the first time in our 

 line of battleships the construction of the hull of 

 the vessel of steel instead of as heretofore of iron. 



From 1883 to 1885 Sir William was engaged 

 on warship design and was head in all respects of 

 the warship-building branch of Messrs. Sir W. G. 

 Armstrong and Co. at Elswick-on-Tyne. He 

 there designed and laid down several famous 

 vessels for foreign Powers, and laid out 

 the Elswick shipyard for warship-building in a 

 manner securing the utmost efficiency for building 

 purposes. 



On the expiration of this period he was ap- 

 pointed by Lord George Hamilton, then First 

 Lord of the Admiralty, as Director of Naval Con- 

 1 struction in succession to Sir N. Barnaby, then 

 retired on account of ill-health. It has long been 

 recognised that no wiser choice could have been 

 made ; and then commenced that portion of the 

 work of Sir William best known to the public, 

 although it will be seen by what has been stated 

 above that he had already a large and very varied 

 amount of work to his credit. 



To deal adequately with the work of Sir William 



