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Fredrik Henrik af Chapman
Vice-Admiral Fredrik Henrik af Chapman (9 September 1721 – 19 August 1808) was a Swedish Navy officer, shipwright and scientist. Serving as the manager of the Karlskrona shipyard from 1782 to 1793, Chapman has been credited as the first person to apply scientific methods to shipbuilding and is considered to be the first naval architect.
Chapman was the author of Architectura Navalis Mercatoria (1768) and several other shipbuilding-related works. His Tractat om Skepps-Byggeriet ("Treatise on Shipbuilding") published in 1775 is a pioneering work in modern naval architecture. He was the first shipbuilder in Northern Europe to introduce prefabrication in shipyards and managed to produce several series of ships in record time. He was ennobled as "af Chapman" in 1772, after the successful coup of Gustav III of Sweden.
Fredrik Henrik Chapman was born at Nya Varvet, the royal dockyards in Gothenburg, on 9 September 1721. He was the son of Thomas Chapman, a Yorkshireman born in 1679 who moved to Sweden in 1715 and joined the Swedish Navy in 1716. His mother was Susanna Colson, the daughter of the London shipwright William Colson. Chapman showed a talent for shipbuilding when he made his first body plan based on a drawing of an Ostend privateer given to him by a Flemish shipwright. Chapman went to sea in 1736, at the age of 15, and spent his late teens working in both private and state shipyards. In 1741, he helped build a Spanish merchantmen, a project that provided him with enough money to allow him to work as a ship's carpenter in London until 1744. Following his time in England, he returned to Gothenburg and established a shipyard with a Swedish merchant named Bagge. Together they built a few small vessels and provided maintenance work for the Swedish East India Company.
Though he had received a good basic education in shipbuilding, Chapman recognized that he did not possess the knowledge of higher mathematics that was required to determine draft and stability at the design stage of a vessel. In 1748, he sold his share of the shipyard and moved to Stockholm where he studied for two years under Baron Fredrik Palmqvist. He went on to study under the English professor of mathematics, Thomas Simpson, who had worked out methods for calculating the volume of irregular surfaces and bodies. After one year of studies in London, he went on to study shipbuilding at the British royal dockyards in Woolwich, Chatham and Deptford.
Chapman recorded his extensive research of British shipbuilding in several documents, including an eight-page handwritten document titled Directions for Building of a Ship of 50 Guns, where he described construction methods as well as the British method of launching ships. His activities attracted the interests of British authorities and upon leaving Deptfort in 1753, he was arrested. His papers were confiscated and he was charged with trying to lure shipyards workers into French service. Anglo-French relations were tense, and both Sweden and Denmark were active in uncovering British manufacturing methods as well as trying to persuade British shipwrights to enter their service. Chapman was kept under house arrest for about one month at the cost of half a guinea per day, though he was allowed to visit London with an escort. All of his documents were eventually returned to him except a rigging plan. After his release, he stayed a few months to study experimental physics and took lessons in engraving.
In 1754, Chapman continued his educational tour by going to the Netherlands and in 1755 to France, where he was given permission to stay at the royal shipyards at Brest to observe warship construction. There he observed the complete process of construction of the French 60-gun ship Célèbre from keel-laying to rigging under the French shipwright Geoffrey the Elder. He also made line drawings and plans of several French ships, including the huge Ville de Paris and the 64-gun Bienfaisant and pen and ink drawings of ship decorations. The experience in Brest is believed to have made a deep impression on Chapman, later contributing to his conviction that 60-gun ships were the most appropriate for Swedish service.
French authorities were the first to recognize Chapman's skills and attempted to convince him to stay and enter service for France, an offer he declined. After Chapman returned to London in 1756, First Lord of the Admiralty Lord Temple tried to do the same, and came close to succeeding by using patriotic appeals to Chapman's English heritage. In his memoirs, Chapman wrote that he would likely have stayed had Temple not been replaced as First Lord of the Admiralty by Lord Winchilsea soon after their meeting. Instead, he was recruited by the Swedish minister in Paris, Ulrik Scheffer, later Minister of External Affairs under Gustav III.
In 1757, Chapman was made assistant shipwright at the royal dockyards in Karlskrona at the age of 36. Soon after his appointment, he drafted his ideal plans for docks, which included facilities for properly ventilated sail storage and advanced dock pumps that could be powered by human power, horses or wind mills. The plans would, however, not be realized until much later, when Chapman was made chief shipwright of the Karlskrona yards.
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Fredrik Henrik af Chapman
Vice-Admiral Fredrik Henrik af Chapman (9 September 1721 – 19 August 1808) was a Swedish Navy officer, shipwright and scientist. Serving as the manager of the Karlskrona shipyard from 1782 to 1793, Chapman has been credited as the first person to apply scientific methods to shipbuilding and is considered to be the first naval architect.
Chapman was the author of Architectura Navalis Mercatoria (1768) and several other shipbuilding-related works. His Tractat om Skepps-Byggeriet ("Treatise on Shipbuilding") published in 1775 is a pioneering work in modern naval architecture. He was the first shipbuilder in Northern Europe to introduce prefabrication in shipyards and managed to produce several series of ships in record time. He was ennobled as "af Chapman" in 1772, after the successful coup of Gustav III of Sweden.
Fredrik Henrik Chapman was born at Nya Varvet, the royal dockyards in Gothenburg, on 9 September 1721. He was the son of Thomas Chapman, a Yorkshireman born in 1679 who moved to Sweden in 1715 and joined the Swedish Navy in 1716. His mother was Susanna Colson, the daughter of the London shipwright William Colson. Chapman showed a talent for shipbuilding when he made his first body plan based on a drawing of an Ostend privateer given to him by a Flemish shipwright. Chapman went to sea in 1736, at the age of 15, and spent his late teens working in both private and state shipyards. In 1741, he helped build a Spanish merchantmen, a project that provided him with enough money to allow him to work as a ship's carpenter in London until 1744. Following his time in England, he returned to Gothenburg and established a shipyard with a Swedish merchant named Bagge. Together they built a few small vessels and provided maintenance work for the Swedish East India Company.
Though he had received a good basic education in shipbuilding, Chapman recognized that he did not possess the knowledge of higher mathematics that was required to determine draft and stability at the design stage of a vessel. In 1748, he sold his share of the shipyard and moved to Stockholm where he studied for two years under Baron Fredrik Palmqvist. He went on to study under the English professor of mathematics, Thomas Simpson, who had worked out methods for calculating the volume of irregular surfaces and bodies. After one year of studies in London, he went on to study shipbuilding at the British royal dockyards in Woolwich, Chatham and Deptford.
Chapman recorded his extensive research of British shipbuilding in several documents, including an eight-page handwritten document titled Directions for Building of a Ship of 50 Guns, where he described construction methods as well as the British method of launching ships. His activities attracted the interests of British authorities and upon leaving Deptfort in 1753, he was arrested. His papers were confiscated and he was charged with trying to lure shipyards workers into French service. Anglo-French relations were tense, and both Sweden and Denmark were active in uncovering British manufacturing methods as well as trying to persuade British shipwrights to enter their service. Chapman was kept under house arrest for about one month at the cost of half a guinea per day, though he was allowed to visit London with an escort. All of his documents were eventually returned to him except a rigging plan. After his release, he stayed a few months to study experimental physics and took lessons in engraving.
In 1754, Chapman continued his educational tour by going to the Netherlands and in 1755 to France, where he was given permission to stay at the royal shipyards at Brest to observe warship construction. There he observed the complete process of construction of the French 60-gun ship Célèbre from keel-laying to rigging under the French shipwright Geoffrey the Elder. He also made line drawings and plans of several French ships, including the huge Ville de Paris and the 64-gun Bienfaisant and pen and ink drawings of ship decorations. The experience in Brest is believed to have made a deep impression on Chapman, later contributing to his conviction that 60-gun ships were the most appropriate for Swedish service.
French authorities were the first to recognize Chapman's skills and attempted to convince him to stay and enter service for France, an offer he declined. After Chapman returned to London in 1756, First Lord of the Admiralty Lord Temple tried to do the same, and came close to succeeding by using patriotic appeals to Chapman's English heritage. In his memoirs, Chapman wrote that he would likely have stayed had Temple not been replaced as First Lord of the Admiralty by Lord Winchilsea soon after their meeting. Instead, he was recruited by the Swedish minister in Paris, Ulrik Scheffer, later Minister of External Affairs under Gustav III.
In 1757, Chapman was made assistant shipwright at the royal dockyards in Karlskrona at the age of 36. Soon after his appointment, he drafted his ideal plans for docks, which included facilities for properly ventilated sail storage and advanced dock pumps that could be powered by human power, horses or wind mills. The plans would, however, not be realized until much later, when Chapman was made chief shipwright of the Karlskrona yards.