Rankine appears to have become specially interested in the problems connected with ship design, after he became Professor of Civil Engineering at Glasgow University in 1855. Conjointly with Mr Isaac Watts, late Chief Constructor of the Navy, and formerly a student of the first School of Naval Architecture; Mr F. K. Barnes, now Surveyor of Dockyards, and Chief Constructor of the Navy, and a distinguished student of the second school; and the late Mr J. R. Napier, a member of the famous Clyde shipbuilding firm, Prof. Rankine produced in 1866 “Shipbuilding: Theoretical and Practical.” This valuable treatise was edited, and for the most part written, by Prof. Rankine, and provides a complete system of information on all branches of shipbuilding and marine engineering, although subsequent progress in certain departments of naval science has made a new edition desirable. The work is also distinguished for its enunciation of several theories connected with the resistance and propulsion of vessels by Prof. Rankine, which have become the accepted basis of modern practice. Of these the mechanical theory of the action of propellers, and the stream-line theory of resistance, are the best known. His investigations and writings on the latter subject were most ably supplemented and confirmed by Mr Froude, whose beautifully-contrived model experiments, coupled with his discovery of the law by which such experiments can be made to afford reliable data for the resistance of full-sized vessels, have laid the profession under even a heavier load of indebtedness.
This, however, was not the only work of investigation and experiment with which Mr Froude actively and inseparably identified himself. Taking up a subject which many authorities before him had studied and written upon with but little success—that of the phenomena of wave motion and the oscillation of ships in a seaway—he propounded and demonstrated at the Institution of Naval Architects in 1861, after much careful thought and experiment, a theory with respect to it which at that time was entirely new and striking, but which has since been firmly established as the sound one.
At first, authorities in the science of naval architecture, like Moseley and Dr Woolley, regarded the new theory with suspicion and disapproval; Rankine, on the contrary, warmly supported it, and helped to develop it and to answer various objections urged against the hypothesis on which it was based. For nearly twenty years Mr Froude steadily pursued the inquiry, adding one mathematical investigation to another, carrying out numerous experiments, and making voyages for the purpose of studying the behaviour of ships. Broadly speaking, it may be said that whereas earlier investigations gave to the naval architect the power of making estimates of the buoyancy and stability of ships floating in smooth water, they gave up as altogether hopeless the attempt to predict the behaviour of ships at sea, or to determine the causes which produce heavy rolling. On the other hand, thanks to Mr Froude, the designer of a ship now knows what precautions to take in order to promote steadiness and good behaviour at sea.
Although the propositions enunciated by Mr Froude were accepted as laws in a wonderfully short time—considering their startling nature—their influence on practice, and especially the practical application of the methods of comparison by which they had been established, have not even yet been brought to anything like their full issue. The work is being continued upon the lines laid down by Mr Froude, amongst others by men whose closer intimacy with the actual affairs of the shipbuilding yard may be expected to yield results which will be more immediately reflected in actual practice.
Passing allusion has already been made to the founding of the Institution of Naval Architects, but an association which has gathered into its membership so largely of all sections of men concerned with shipbuilding and shipping, and absorbs so much of the knowledge and talent in these domains, must have fuller reference made to it. Regarding its foundation, in 1860, Mr White, in his article in the Westminster Review, says:
“The scheme of the Institution was happily conceived and well executed. Amongst its earliest members were found the trained naval architects of the first and second Schools, the leading private shipbuilders and marine engineers, the principal shipbuilding officers of the Dockyards, men of science specially interested in naval architecture, shipowners, merchants, and others connected with shipping; while a considerable number of sailors from the Royal Navy and Mercantile Marine showed their appreciation of the value of naval science by becoming Associates. The list of names is eminently representative. Sir John Pakington (afterwards Lord Hampton), then only recently retired from the office of First Lord of the Admiralty, was the first President. Many experienced naval officers supported him. There were men like Watts, Read, and Moorsom, who had been pupils of Dr Inman half a century before; others, like Fairbairn, Laird, and Grantham, who had been conversant with iron shipbuilding from its commencement; marine engineering was worthily represented by veterans like Penn, Maudslay, and Lloyd; mathematicians and men of science like Canon Moseley, Dr Woolley, Professor Airy, and Mr Froude appear on the list. Private shipbuilders and naval architects like Scott Russell, Samuda, Napier, and White, joined in the movement, so did the surveying staff of Lloyd’s Register. In fact, there was a general appreciation of the endeavour to establish an association which should enable all classes interested in shipping to interchange ideas and experience with a view to general improvement. Mr Reed was the first Secretary, retaining that post until he was appointed Chief Constructor of the Navy, and in that position did much to aid the progress of the Institution.”
While it is true that the membership list of the Institution in its early days was of the representative character above indicated, it should be pointed out that the actual proceedings of the Institution were not shared in by anything like the variety of talent which the list comprised, or which now distinguishes its annual meetings. For many years it was almost the exclusive conference of Admiralty authorities and members of those shipbuilding and engineering firms who undertook Government work, and the transactions for a long time were very largely confined to purely naval matters. The scientific value of the earlier volumes of the transactions would certainly have suffered considerably if the papers by Mr Froude and Prof. Rankine had not formed contributions, and the prosperity and development of the Institution would have been equally lessened had there not been general infusion of “new blood” from the mercantile marine in all parts of the country. This has been going on during the past twelve years or more, and the scope and utility of the Institution’s proceedings have increased with the change. Of the later development of the Institution, the authority already quoted says:—
“Owing to the rapid advances constantly being made in both the science and the practice of the profession, the ‘Transactions’ have come to be the chief text-books available. Members and Associates have joined from all the great maritime nations. Members of the professional corps of naval architects and engineers of France, Austria, Italy, Germany, the United States, Russia, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Holland, are proud to be numbered with their English professional brethren, and not a few of these foreign members have contributed valuable Papers. The meetings of the Institution afford exceptional opportunities for the discussion of questions having general interest, as well as others having more special value to professional men. Different views of the same subject find capable exponents, and lead to valuable discussions. The latest systems of construction and most recent changes in materiel are described by competent authorities. Valuable data are put on record relating to the designs and performances of war-ships and merchant-ships. Inventions of various kinds are described and examined. Abstruse theoretical investigations are by no means rare; and, in many cases, the contribution of one such Paper by an original thinker has given a start to others and led to important extensions of knowledge. In fact, the Institution of Naval Architects has admirably fulfilled the intentions of its founders, acting as a centre where valuable information could be collected, and whence it could be distributed for the general benefit of the profession. Before it was founded naval science had no home in England; its treasures lay scattered far and wide in occasional Memoirs and Papers; but now everything worth preservation naturally finds its way to the ‘Transactions.’ Any movement affecting shipping also leaves its record there in Papers and Discussions which will hereafter have a high historical value.”
As evidencing the change which has latterly come over the Institution with respect to its annual proceedings, it may be noted that whereas in the early years there were at some meetings no papers—leaving out of account those by Froude and Rankine—except by Admiralty members and others concerned with Government work, there was not a single paper by an Admiralty man during the meetings of the present year.