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