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

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The Professionalization of French Naval Shipbuilders significant alterations to naval organization only slightly affected constructors. On January 1, 1774, an ordinance establishing a general category of naval pupils to be known as eleves de port suppressed all other categories including those in naval construction. The new arrangement failed to take hold, however, and a second ordinance of November 8 authorized a return to the arrangements of 1765. A major reforming ordinance of September 27, 1776, replaced civil administrators by naval officers at the head of the arsenals and the major bureaus but did not touch the constitution of the corps of naval constructors.97 A major change occurred, however, in the conseil de marine. Authorized to replace councils established by the ordinances of November 8, 1774, and March 25, 1765, when the former appellation, conseil de construction, had been dropped, its function and competence were defined only in 1776. Naval constructors no longer sat as members, for the new council's duties and responsibilities were far-reaching.98 But the loss of membership was not serious, for the important socializing function, providing a regular naval forum for both aristocratic officers and humble master-craftsmen, had been completed. Finally, on May 6, 1787, the school established competitive positions for a new category of pupil, eleves-constructeurs marchands.99 The expansion of professionalization to include commercial shipbuilding had arrived. At about the same time, however, Duhamel's own concept of education, which aimed to introduce engineering students to a general mathematical culture, came under attack for its lack of mathematical precision. Notwithstanding Condorcet's eulogy of 1783, which stated that Duhamel du Monceau had contributed more than anyone to direct the sciences toward public utility, he criticized Duhamel's failure to place greater reliance on theoretical inquiry.'?? A few years later a young teacher of naval pupils, Honore-Sebastien Vial de Clairbois, denounced Duhamel's theoretical knowledge as too weak, his practical knowledge of details as too shallow, and his age as too great to permit him to study shipbuilding on a theoretical basis.10' Vial's idea that mathematics was the unique way to resolve all problems in the "useful" arts represented the wave of the future. It was under the aegis of men like Vial that the idea of engineering as applied science, quite distinct 97Neuville, Etat sommaire (n. 39 above), pp. 399-400; and Lacour-Gayet, La Marine militaire (n. 96 above), pp. 31-37. 98Neuville, Etat sommaire (n. 39 above), p. 128, n. 4. 99Ibid., p. 400; Anthiaume (n. 19 above), p. 313. '0?See Hahn (n. 25 above), p. 125, for Condorcet's eulogy, and Gillispie (n. 66 above), p. 338, for Condorcet's qualification of Duhamel's contribution. '?'See Gille, "Les Ecoles des constructeurs" (n. 18 above), p. 170, for Vial de Clairbois's denunciation, with which the author agrees. 23
24 James Pritchard from trial and error, emerged from the French Revolution and its great offspring, the Ecole polytechnique.102 * * * A fortuitous combination of unusual factors and varied circumstances rather than any single cause ensured the superior quality of French warships during the 18th century. Though a case might be made for government-inspired scientific inquiry into naval problems and for technological transfer, these were probably the least important considerations. Such factors are certainly insufficient in themselves. The absence of any strong, hidebound, craft tradition of warship construction was probably more important, as, too, was more than half a century of rational collection, organization, and diffusion of preexisting craft skills. But, while significant, these factors, too, are inadequate either individually or in combination to account for the excellence achieved. The most important factors were administrative and social: first, the conscious desire, arising from the recognition by naval administrators of the need, to increase the social status of shipwrights and their ability to do so through ministerial order; second, the unknown but profound workings of administrative institutions to change social attitudes and values. For, out of the human and organizational chemistry of the councils of construction emerged the professionalization of the shipbuilders themselves. A final factor was Duhamel's introduction of constructors to a general mathematical culture, his rejection of theories that had no firmer foundation than hypothesis, and his insistence that constructors continue to contemplate the old rules for building ships to find the best practice-in other words, to combine mathematics and intuition. French warships owed their excellence to their builders, and it was during the 18th century that the latter became institutionalized and professionalized.'03 These elements, nontechnical and technical, led not so much to the successful application of the results of scientific inquiry to the challenge of good ship design as to the development of something newer and different, namely, the profession of naval engineering. Ironically, as the end of the Old Regime approached, the '02See Hahn (n. 25 above), pp. 282-85, for discussion of the changes in the educational norms for the engineering profession. '03Roger Hahn, "Scientific Careers in Eighteenth Century France," in The Emergence of Science in Western Europe (n. 85 above), pp. 127-28. Hahn emphasizes the role of these two social variables-institutionalization and professionalization-behind French scientific creativity and productivity during the 18th century.
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