An History of Marine Architecture
Including an Enlarged and Progressive View of the Nautical Regulations and Naval History, Both Civil and Military, of All Nations, Especially of Great Britain

This three-volume work, published 1800–2, stands as the first serious study of British naval architecture, and also covers developments overseas.

John Charnock (Author)

9781108084116, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 28 July 2016

500 pages, 18 b/w illus.
29.8 x 21 x 2.5 cm, 1.32 kg

After completing his studies at Trinity College, Oxford, John Charnock (1756–1807) joined the Royal Navy as a volunteer. Though details of his career at sea are lacking, he is known to have embarked on assiduous research into historical and contemporary naval affairs, and he cultivated contacts with many serving officers. His six-volume Biographia Navalis (1794–8), flawed yet still useful, is also reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection. Published in three volumes from 1800 to 1802, the present work stands as the first serious study of naval architecture in Britain in particular, while also noting major developments in Europe and beyond. The volumes are illustrated throughout with numerous designs of vessels. Volume 1 (1800) traces the origins of marine architecture and how it was affected by commerce and war, from the ancient Chinese and Egyptians, through the Greeks and Romans, up to the death of Richard III.

Dedication
Preface
1. Introductory chapter
2. The science of shipbuilding
3. Of the different vessels
4. Of commerce
5. The advancement of the art
6. The different species of timber used by the ancients
7. Description of the vessels employed by the Grecians
8. The construction and proportions adopted by the ancients in building commercial vessels
9. Cursory remarks on the rapid improvement of marine architecture
10. The conduct of Genseric
11. Remarks on the account of the expedition of Belisarius
12. Principal causes of the want of scientific information in respect to the marine architecture of the ancients
13. Causes of the decline and contracted pursuit of naval war as well as commerce
14. Description of the gallies or vessels built for the emperor of the east
15. The sudden appearance of the Normans as a naval power
16. Insignificant state of the Genoese previous to the tenth century
17. Rapid decline of the eastern empire.

Subject Areas: History of engineering & technology [TBX]