MA Thesis SDU Maritime Archaeology Programme, 2019
This thesis explores the development of English ship design in the 16th to the early 17th century... more This thesis explores the development of English ship design in the 16th to the early 17th century. It has been proposed that the warship Mary Rose, built under king Henry VIII in 1509-1510, was already designed by the English method dominant in the 17th and 18th centuries. This thesis will contend that this method of design was developed by Elizabethan shipwright Mathew Baker and his contemporaries in the last quarter of the 16th century, well after the building of the Mary Rose. The defining characteristics of this method will be presented, and the reasons for this disparity in views will be explored.
This research overturns the current prevailing interpretations of the design of the 16th-century ships Mary Rose and Basque whaler San Juan as well as the 15th-century Cavalaire-sur-mer vessel. It also presents a reassessment of Mathew Baker's contribution to the development of English ship design—reestablishing a link to the Mediterranean moulding system of design along with a new interpretation of one of Baker's iconic drawings.
La Belle: Archaeology of a Seventeenth-Century Ship of New World Colonization (Chapter 6) edited by James E. Bruseth, Amy A. Borgens, Bradford M. Jones & Eric D. Ray, 2017
Occasionally the archaeological ship reconstructor is fortunate enough to encounter the remains o... more Occasionally the archaeological ship reconstructor is fortunate enough to encounter the remains of a vessel on which shipwrights' design marks have been preserved. La Belle (1684) has the most extensive and complete set of such marks documented to date. The distinguishing features of the distribution, number, and placement of La Belle's surmarks associate it with a graphic design system of "geometric fairing with diagonals," which was in use in French shipbuilding in the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
Section I of this essay presents the archaeological and documentary evidence that supports the conclusion that a graphic design system of "geometric fairing with diagonals" was used in La Belle's construction. It also discusses how and which specific measurements were applied to the reconstructed design procedures to regenerate La Belle's archaeologically documented hull shape.
Section II examines whether La Belle's design system was a completely new invention or whether it was developed from existing concepts of ship design. It will be argued that this system actually expanded on the basic concepts of Mediterranean moulding—a non-graphic design system of geometric fairing that was in use in European shipbuilding for centuries prior to La Belle's construction—in the process of adapting them to the methods of orthographic drawing.
The Oxford Handbook of Maritime Archaeology (Chapter 12) edited by Alexis Catsambis, Ben Ford & Donny L. Hamilton, 2011
"Studying the design of La Belle was to a great extent a circular process—much like a design sp... more "Studying the design of La Belle was to a great extent a circular process—much like a design spiral in modern naval architecture. The discovery of new information, whether in the process of the reconstruction of the archaeological remains or from documentary research, necessitated a reexamination and/or a reworking of earlier recordings, preliminary reconstructions, and working hypotheses. This process ultimately spiraled toward the method that I believe was used to design La Belle . It is beyond the scope of a single chapter to fully discuss the entire design process for a ship. Consequently, here I will focus on the longitudinal timbers—the keel, sternpost, and stem. While not a complete reconstruction, these are sufficient to explain the value of understanding the design process in reconstructing a shipwreck.
For each step in the process I will attempt to answer the following question: what would the designer have to know or do to take the next step in the design of the hull? I will endeavor to adhere to the progressive logic of the design sequence. I followed the same approach in originally working out the design method in order not to be biased by the fact that I was starting with the end result of the design process—the surviving articulated timber remains. It is dangerous to search for combinations of curves that fit archaeological remains without trying to explain how the original designer would have generated and used these curves..."
Colonial Gunboat Philadelphia Preservation Assessment and Conservation Plan (Vol. I), edited by Peter Fix, 2010
When working on a conservation assessment of the Revolutionary War gunboat Philadelphia for the S... more When working on a conservation assessment of the Revolutionary War gunboat Philadelphia for the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History, Peter Fix and I had the opportunity to closely examine the remains of the vessel. The Philadelphia has been on display at the museum for almost fifty years and has been studied thoroughly; therefore, we were not expecting to make any new archaeological discoveries. To our surprise, we found a variety of previously undocumented carpenter’s marks scribed into the timbers by the original builders in 1776.
During our preliminary survey, we discovered eight types of marks and one construction feature relating to the vessel’s design...
"The task of recreating the Yassiada ship was given to some of the next generation of nautical ar... more "The task of recreating the Yassiada ship was given to some of the next generation of nautical archaeologists. This was a unique opportunity for us to become deeply immersed in the traditions of seafaring and shipbuilding. We were going to work on the coast along which ships have sailed for millennia and where wooden shipbuilding is still a respected and profitable profession. Bodrum Harbor is lined with a forest of masts..."
International Mustafa V. Koç Underwater Archaeology Symposium, 2023
Building a partial reconstruction of the Yassıada ship helped me formulate a working theory for ... more Building a partial reconstruction of the Yassıada ship helped me formulate a working theory for researching the quantification of curvature in ship design. Defining or quantifying the longitudinal runs of planks and ribbands at certain key locations of curvature change was central to the development of design methods used in frame-first construction.
This "working theory" of ship design helped me identify design marks on the archaeological remains of the American Revolutionary War gunboat Philadelphia, on a vessel from the 1730s found in the Dnipro river, Ukraine and on the 1684 French vessel La Belle. Focusing on the role of quantified longitudinal curves in controlling changes in restricted transverse geometry led me to a reinterpretation of the design concepts behind the 16th-century Mary Rose and the Basque whaler San Juan; this in turn led to a new interpretation of the work of Elizabethan shipwright Mathew Baker. Furthermore, studying the remains of La Belle let me identify the first archaeological evidence of a design system that quantifies the curvature of diagonals, which led to an understanding of its conceptual development.
International Mustafa V. Koç Underwater Archaeology Symposium, 2023
Archaeologists, working at the National Reserve on the island of Khortytsya in the Dnipro River i... more Archaeologists, working at the National Reserve on the island of Khortytsya in the Dnipro River in Ukraine, have raised and conserved the remains of several vessels dating to the time of the Russian-Ottoman war of 1736-1739... The Ukrainian archaeologists identified the boat raised in 1999 as a "new-style" Cossack boat and even titled their 2005 book Zaporozka Chayka... I have concluded that the raised vessel is not a "new-style" Cossack boat, but rather it is a vessel designed for the transport of a specific cargo—horses. Therefore, these remains may give us little insight into the still elusive traditional chayka, but they provide very important new insights into the underlying concepts of Mediterranean moulding.
MA Thesis SDU Maritime Archaeology Programme, 2019
This thesis explores the development of English ship design in the 16th to the early 17th century... more This thesis explores the development of English ship design in the 16th to the early 17th century. It has been proposed that the warship Mary Rose, built under king Henry VIII in 1509-1510, was already designed by the English method dominant in the 17th and 18th centuries. This thesis will contend that this method of design was developed by Elizabethan shipwright Mathew Baker and his contemporaries in the last quarter of the 16th century, well after the building of the Mary Rose. The defining characteristics of this method will be presented, and the reasons for this disparity in views will be explored.
This research overturns the current prevailing interpretations of the design of the 16th-century ships Mary Rose and Basque whaler San Juan as well as the 15th-century Cavalaire-sur-mer vessel. It also presents a reassessment of Mathew Baker's contribution to the development of English ship design—reestablishing a link to the Mediterranean moulding system of design along with a new interpretation of one of Baker's iconic drawings.
La Belle: Archaeology of a Seventeenth-Century Ship of New World Colonization (Chapter 6) edited by James E. Bruseth, Amy A. Borgens, Bradford M. Jones & Eric D. Ray, 2017
Occasionally the archaeological ship reconstructor is fortunate enough to encounter the remains o... more Occasionally the archaeological ship reconstructor is fortunate enough to encounter the remains of a vessel on which shipwrights' design marks have been preserved. La Belle (1684) has the most extensive and complete set of such marks documented to date. The distinguishing features of the distribution, number, and placement of La Belle's surmarks associate it with a graphic design system of "geometric fairing with diagonals," which was in use in French shipbuilding in the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
Section I of this essay presents the archaeological and documentary evidence that supports the conclusion that a graphic design system of "geometric fairing with diagonals" was used in La Belle's construction. It also discusses how and which specific measurements were applied to the reconstructed design procedures to regenerate La Belle's archaeologically documented hull shape.
Section II examines whether La Belle's design system was a completely new invention or whether it was developed from existing concepts of ship design. It will be argued that this system actually expanded on the basic concepts of Mediterranean moulding—a non-graphic design system of geometric fairing that was in use in European shipbuilding for centuries prior to La Belle's construction—in the process of adapting them to the methods of orthographic drawing.
The Oxford Handbook of Maritime Archaeology (Chapter 12) edited by Alexis Catsambis, Ben Ford & Donny L. Hamilton, 2011
"Studying the design of La Belle was to a great extent a circular process—much like a design sp... more "Studying the design of La Belle was to a great extent a circular process—much like a design spiral in modern naval architecture. The discovery of new information, whether in the process of the reconstruction of the archaeological remains or from documentary research, necessitated a reexamination and/or a reworking of earlier recordings, preliminary reconstructions, and working hypotheses. This process ultimately spiraled toward the method that I believe was used to design La Belle . It is beyond the scope of a single chapter to fully discuss the entire design process for a ship. Consequently, here I will focus on the longitudinal timbers—the keel, sternpost, and stem. While not a complete reconstruction, these are sufficient to explain the value of understanding the design process in reconstructing a shipwreck.
For each step in the process I will attempt to answer the following question: what would the designer have to know or do to take the next step in the design of the hull? I will endeavor to adhere to the progressive logic of the design sequence. I followed the same approach in originally working out the design method in order not to be biased by the fact that I was starting with the end result of the design process—the surviving articulated timber remains. It is dangerous to search for combinations of curves that fit archaeological remains without trying to explain how the original designer would have generated and used these curves..."
Colonial Gunboat Philadelphia Preservation Assessment and Conservation Plan (Vol. I), edited by Peter Fix, 2010
When working on a conservation assessment of the Revolutionary War gunboat Philadelphia for the S... more When working on a conservation assessment of the Revolutionary War gunboat Philadelphia for the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History, Peter Fix and I had the opportunity to closely examine the remains of the vessel. The Philadelphia has been on display at the museum for almost fifty years and has been studied thoroughly; therefore, we were not expecting to make any new archaeological discoveries. To our surprise, we found a variety of previously undocumented carpenter’s marks scribed into the timbers by the original builders in 1776.
During our preliminary survey, we discovered eight types of marks and one construction feature relating to the vessel’s design...
"The task of recreating the Yassiada ship was given to some of the next generation of nautical ar... more "The task of recreating the Yassiada ship was given to some of the next generation of nautical archaeologists. This was a unique opportunity for us to become deeply immersed in the traditions of seafaring and shipbuilding. We were going to work on the coast along which ships have sailed for millennia and where wooden shipbuilding is still a respected and profitable profession. Bodrum Harbor is lined with a forest of masts..."
International Mustafa V. Koç Underwater Archaeology Symposium, 2023
Building a partial reconstruction of the Yassıada ship helped me formulate a working theory for ... more Building a partial reconstruction of the Yassıada ship helped me formulate a working theory for researching the quantification of curvature in ship design. Defining or quantifying the longitudinal runs of planks and ribbands at certain key locations of curvature change was central to the development of design methods used in frame-first construction.
This "working theory" of ship design helped me identify design marks on the archaeological remains of the American Revolutionary War gunboat Philadelphia, on a vessel from the 1730s found in the Dnipro river, Ukraine and on the 1684 French vessel La Belle. Focusing on the role of quantified longitudinal curves in controlling changes in restricted transverse geometry led me to a reinterpretation of the design concepts behind the 16th-century Mary Rose and the Basque whaler San Juan; this in turn led to a new interpretation of the work of Elizabethan shipwright Mathew Baker. Furthermore, studying the remains of La Belle let me identify the first archaeological evidence of a design system that quantifies the curvature of diagonals, which led to an understanding of its conceptual development.
International Mustafa V. Koç Underwater Archaeology Symposium, 2023
Archaeologists, working at the National Reserve on the island of Khortytsya in the Dnipro River i... more Archaeologists, working at the National Reserve on the island of Khortytsya in the Dnipro River in Ukraine, have raised and conserved the remains of several vessels dating to the time of the Russian-Ottoman war of 1736-1739... The Ukrainian archaeologists identified the boat raised in 1999 as a "new-style" Cossack boat and even titled their 2005 book Zaporozka Chayka... I have concluded that the raised vessel is not a "new-style" Cossack boat, but rather it is a vessel designed for the transport of a specific cargo—horses. Therefore, these remains may give us little insight into the still elusive traditional chayka, but they provide very important new insights into the underlying concepts of Mediterranean moulding.
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This research overturns the current prevailing interpretations of the design of the 16th-century ships Mary Rose and Basque whaler San Juan as well as the 15th-century Cavalaire-sur-mer vessel. It also presents a reassessment of Mathew Baker's contribution to the development of English ship design—reestablishing a link to the Mediterranean moulding system of design along with a new interpretation of one of Baker's iconic drawings.
Section I of this essay presents the archaeological and documentary evidence that supports the conclusion that a graphic design system of "geometric fairing with diagonals" was used in La Belle's construction. It also discusses how and which specific measurements were applied to the reconstructed design procedures to regenerate La Belle's archaeologically documented hull shape.
Section II examines whether La Belle's design system was a completely new invention or whether it was developed from existing concepts of ship design. It will be argued that this system actually expanded on the basic concepts of Mediterranean moulding—a non-graphic design system of geometric fairing that was in use in European shipbuilding for centuries prior to La Belle's construction—in the process of adapting them to the methods of orthographic drawing.
For each step in the process I will attempt to answer the following question: what would the designer have to know or do to take the next step in the design of the hull? I will endeavor to adhere to the progressive logic of the design sequence. I followed the same approach in originally working out the design method in order not to be biased by the fact that I was starting with the end result of the design process—the surviving articulated timber remains. It is dangerous to search for combinations of curves that fit archaeological remains without trying to explain how the original designer would have generated and used these curves..."
During our preliminary survey, we discovered eight types of marks and one construction feature relating to the vessel’s design...
This "working theory" of ship design helped me identify design marks on the archaeological remains of the American Revolutionary War gunboat Philadelphia, on a vessel from the 1730s found in the Dnipro river, Ukraine and on the 1684 French vessel La Belle. Focusing on the role of quantified longitudinal curves in controlling changes in restricted transverse geometry led me to a reinterpretation of the design concepts behind the 16th-century Mary Rose and the Basque whaler San Juan; this in turn led to a new interpretation of the work of Elizabethan shipwright Mathew Baker. Furthermore, studying the remains of La Belle let me identify the first archaeological evidence of a design system that quantifies the curvature of diagonals, which led to an understanding of its conceptual development.
This research overturns the current prevailing interpretations of the design of the 16th-century ships Mary Rose and Basque whaler San Juan as well as the 15th-century Cavalaire-sur-mer vessel. It also presents a reassessment of Mathew Baker's contribution to the development of English ship design—reestablishing a link to the Mediterranean moulding system of design along with a new interpretation of one of Baker's iconic drawings.
Section I of this essay presents the archaeological and documentary evidence that supports the conclusion that a graphic design system of "geometric fairing with diagonals" was used in La Belle's construction. It also discusses how and which specific measurements were applied to the reconstructed design procedures to regenerate La Belle's archaeologically documented hull shape.
Section II examines whether La Belle's design system was a completely new invention or whether it was developed from existing concepts of ship design. It will be argued that this system actually expanded on the basic concepts of Mediterranean moulding—a non-graphic design system of geometric fairing that was in use in European shipbuilding for centuries prior to La Belle's construction—in the process of adapting them to the methods of orthographic drawing.
For each step in the process I will attempt to answer the following question: what would the designer have to know or do to take the next step in the design of the hull? I will endeavor to adhere to the progressive logic of the design sequence. I followed the same approach in originally working out the design method in order not to be biased by the fact that I was starting with the end result of the design process—the surviving articulated timber remains. It is dangerous to search for combinations of curves that fit archaeological remains without trying to explain how the original designer would have generated and used these curves..."
During our preliminary survey, we discovered eight types of marks and one construction feature relating to the vessel’s design...
This "working theory" of ship design helped me identify design marks on the archaeological remains of the American Revolutionary War gunboat Philadelphia, on a vessel from the 1730s found in the Dnipro river, Ukraine and on the 1684 French vessel La Belle. Focusing on the role of quantified longitudinal curves in controlling changes in restricted transverse geometry led me to a reinterpretation of the design concepts behind the 16th-century Mary Rose and the Basque whaler San Juan; this in turn led to a new interpretation of the work of Elizabethan shipwright Mathew Baker. Furthermore, studying the remains of La Belle let me identify the first archaeological evidence of a design system that quantifies the curvature of diagonals, which led to an understanding of its conceptual development.