Pritchard, James; From Shipwright To Naval Constructor - Iowa State ...
Pritchard, James; From Shipwright To Naval Constructor - Iowa State ...
Pritchard, James; From Shipwright To Naval Constructor - Iowa State ...
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
14 <strong>James</strong> <strong>Pritchard</strong><br />
the Seven Years' War, Chefd'escadre Maximin de Bompar displayed "a<br />
violent prejudice" against the design of the newly proposed Le Languedoc<br />
of eighty guns. Bompar insisted that the prime characteristic of<br />
any flagship was strength to protect its squadron rather than speed. In<br />
comparison to Le Foudroyant, laid down fourteen years before, the new<br />
ship, though of the same class, was 8 feet longer at the keel and 2 feet<br />
broader amidships. Whereas, in the past, first-rates, mounting 100-<br />
116 guns, possessed keel-lengths of no more than 176 feet, Le Languedoc's<br />
builder proposed one of 180 feet.63<br />
Innovations also upset conservative elements among naval administrative<br />
officers. Some did not understand what was happening. They<br />
viewed changes from the terms and clauses of 1689 with apprehension<br />
and sometimes interpreted constructors' innovations as insubordination.<br />
The intendant at Rochefort during the early 1750s, Sebastien<br />
Lenormant de Mezy, mirrored such fears and attitudes. In his opinion,<br />
the search for speed led builders to give warships the proportions and<br />
characteristics of frigates. Ships of the line, he claimed, were losing<br />
their tightness and their ability to carry heavy ordnance and large sail<br />
areas, and their keels displayed a tendency to hog or arch. Height of<br />
lower gun decks above the waterline and heaviness of scantlings were<br />
sacrificed to speed and grace. New ships could not carry their lower<br />
batteries on second and third voyages; they had to be constantly rebuilt<br />
in order to last. By seeking to increase firepower, constructors lost for<br />
new frigates their qualities of fineness, lightness, and speed, and they<br />
assumed the characteristics of ships of the line.64 Similar complaints<br />
came from the intendant of <strong>To</strong>ulon. Charles-Marin Hurson criticized<br />
constructors who ignored the experience of seagoing officers by charging<br />
that they paid too much attention to their own preoccupation with<br />
"gracefulness and speed, without insisting enough on robustness and<br />
ease of different manoeuvres which they know only by theory."65<br />
Nevertheless, because naval constructors and senior administrators<br />
and naval officers met in the arsenals and clashed in councils of construction,<br />
they gained an appreciation of each other and of the benefits<br />
to be obtained from professionalization, and thereby the former began<br />
to move into the fringes of polite, educated society to the relatively new<br />
position of engineer. These social and administrative developments,<br />
rather than the theoretical inquiries of academicians, were crucial<br />
63<strong>To</strong>ulon, Archives de la Marine (hereafter <strong>To</strong>ulon), Serie 1A', 214, ff. 29-9', 48<br />
Comm" Gen' Dasque to Duc de Choiseul, March 28 and May 2, 1762.<br />
6Bibliotheque nationale, n.a.f., no. 126, "Memoire sur le service, et l'administration du<br />
Port, et arcenal de la marine a Rochefort," pp. 132-35.<br />
65<strong>To</strong>ulon, S6rie 1A', 214, Hurson to Choiseul, March 28, 1762.