Pritchard, James; From Shipwright To Naval Constructor - Iowa State ...

20 James Pritchard
mathematics defined in an ever more precise, unambiguous, and universal
language of its own.82 Duhamel du Monceau could not move in
that direction. His attitude toward shipbuilding is best captured by the
term "engineering." Like him, we should refer to naval engineering or
the profession of naval architecture, not to the science of naval
architecture. For, like engineers, Duhamel knew that there is no perfect
ship-only a better one. To quote Fores, "[The engineer's] choices
are never wholly rational nor are they backed by all the demonstrative
powers of science."83 Duhamel du Monceau might have written the
same, but he wrote as follows: "The art consists ... in knowing how to
lose a little on the one hand, to gain on the other, or how not to gain as
much as possible in one respect, in order not to lose completely other
advantages: thus, we must preserve a certain balance; but for that we
must know at least approximately what shape a vessel would have to
have to give it this or that advantage apart from all the others."84 The
successful absorption of mechanics by mathematics rolled over men
like Duhamel. Well before the end of the century his ideas had become
thoroughly discredited. Yet Duhamel made the key contribution to the
professionalization of naval shipwrights.
By the mid-18th century, French naval constructors had already
ceased to fit traditional categories as craftsmen or workers. The boundaries
of their category of social status were both distinct and fluid and
becoming more so. But it was Duhamel who fulfilled the core criteria
for their occupational role, by providing both formal technical training
in which an intellectual component predominated and mastery of a
generalized cultural training that included skill (trial and error) as well
as understanding. All that remained was to add the institutional means
to enforce socially responsible use of such skills.85
The stature of naval constructors also continued to grow despite
their limited education and want of manners. Although acknowledging
that constructors were very well acquainted with their art and
skilled in execution, the intendant of Brest, Gilles Hocquart, thought
that none was capable of aiding in the compilation of a planned marine
82See Morris Kline, Mathematics in Western Culture (Oxford [1953] 1980), pp. 240-42.
Also, Rene Taton, L'Oeuvre scientifique de Gaspard Monge (Paris, 1951), pp. 146-47,
239-40. For the reaction to this development see C. C. Gillispie, "The Encyclopedie and
the Jacobin Philosophy of Science: A Study in Ideas and Consequences," in Critical
Problems in the History of Science, ed. Marshall Clagett (Madison, Wisc. [1959] 1962), pp.
255-89.
83Fores (n. 78 above), p. 858.
'8Duhamel du Monceau (n. 71 above), p. 313.
85Parsons, "Professions" (n. 49 above), p. 536; see also M. P. Crosland, "The Develop-
ment of a Professional Career in Science in France," in The Emergence of Science in Western
Europe, ed. Maurice Crosland (London, 1975), p. 139.