- William Henry White
Infobox Engineer
image_width =
caption =
name = William Henry White
nationality = English
birth_date =2 February 1845
birth_place =Plymouth ,Devon
death_date = Death date and age|1913|2|27|1845|2|2
death_place =
education =Royal School of Naval Architecture
spouse =
parents =
children =
discipline = Civil, Marine,
institutions =Institution of Civil Engineers (president),
Institution of Mechanical Engineers (president),
Institution of Marine Engineers (president),
practice_name =
significant_projects = Royal Sovereign class, King Edward VII class,HMY Victoria and Albert III , RMS Mauretania,
significant_design =
significant_advance =
significant_awards =Sir William Henry White (
2 February 1845 –27 February 1913 ) was a prolific Britishwarship designer and Chief Constructor at theAdmiralty .He was born in
Plymouth and became an apprentice at the naval dockyard there in 1859. In 1863 he obtained a scholarship to enter the newly formedRoyal School of Naval Architecture inSouth Kensington , inLondon . After his apprenticeship he worked for the Admiralty on specifications and calculations for new ships, and became secretary to the then Chief Constructor of the Admiralty, Edward Reed, until the latter's resignation on9 July 1870 .He was then appointed instructor on naval design at the Royal School of Naval Architecture, and in 1872 became secretary of the Council of Construction which oversaw all Royal Navy ship construction. From 1872–1873 he worked at Pembroke and Portsmouth Dockyards.
In March 1875 he was promoted to Assistant Constructor and married later in that year. He also published his "A Manual of Naval Architecture. For the use of Officers of the Royal Navy, Shipbuilders". He resigned from the Admiralty in April 1883 and joined Sir
William Armstrong 's company as designer and manager of their warship construction. He returned to the Admiralty asDirector of Naval Construction and Assistant Controller of the Navy on1 August 1885 . He was immediately involved in a reorganisation of the dockyards and technical departments, and later worked on the design of the revolutionary "Royal Sovereign" class battleships. He was knighted in 1895.He suffered a nervous breakdown in 1901 following criticism in Parliament for the near-capsizing of the Royal Yacht, the "Victoria and Albert", which had happened when she was floated out of the
graving dock where she was being fitted out on3 July 1900 . The cause was around 700 tons of excessive weight above thecentre of gravity of the ship, in particular a large amount ofcement sound-proofing around the Royal apartments. Consequently, themetacentric height was reduced from a stable 2 feet to a very unsafe 3 inches. Although exonerated from direct responsibility, the Admiralty blamed him for "not sufficiently impressing upon your subordinates the novelty and importance of the task entrusted to them". He submitted his last design for a battleship in April 1901, the "King Edward VII" class but he was ill and constantly worried about trivial matters, unable to delegate even the most minor decision. He requested early retirement and left the Admiralty on31 January 1902 .In the 16 years that he was head of naval construction, he bore ultimate responsibility for the design of 43
battleship s, 26armoured cruiser s, 102protected cruiser s and 74 unarmoured warships, a total of 245 ships worth (in 1900) £80 million.Following his retirement, he was a consulting architect in the design of the
Cunard liner RMS "Mauretania" and president of the Institution of Civil Engineers, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, and the Institution of Marine Engineers. He was also Chairman of the Council, Royal Society of Arts from 1909–1910 and governor of Imperial College from 1907 until his death from a stroke in 1913.References
* [http://www.plymouthdata.info/PP-WhiteSirW.htm A potted biography of Sir William White]
* "A Century of Naval Construction", D.K. Brown, Conway Maritime Press 1983, ISBN 0-85177-282-Xs-start s-npo|pro s-bef|before=
John Clarke Hawkshaw s-ttl|title=President of theInstitution of Civil Engineers
years=November 1903 – November 1904 s-aft|after=Guilford Lindsey Molesworth end
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