THE LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM WHITE, K.C.B., F.R.S., LL.D., D.Sc. By Frederick Manning, with an introduction by The Right Honorable Lord George Hamilton. E. P. Dutton and Co., New York. $8.00.
Sir William White, for seventeen years the Director of Naval Construction and Assistant Controller of the British Admiralty, had obtained, before his retirement in 1920, not only an enviable success as an organizer, administrator, teacher, and author, but also an outstanding reputation in the field of naval architecture and a position of preeminence in the more specialized science of Warship Design.
It is on the latter score that his biography commends itself to the naval reader, for the author has allowed himself full scope in his treatment of the professional aspects of White’s career. So much is this the case, that the book has become more a record of achievement than a portrayal of personality, although considerable matter of personal nature is included from which the reader tends to form his own opinion of the man.
From the naval viewpoint, the book assumes importance as a history of steel warship construction, tracing in detail, as it does, the development of the man-of-war from the wooden iron-clad of 1860 to the modern battleship.
As a shipwright’s apprentice in an admiralty dockyard in 1859, White made his first acquaintance with the armored war vessel, over whose destinies he was later to wield such a powerful influence—for it was in that year that the first of the English iron-clads was laid down. From then until after his retirement, the life of Sir William White and the development of the warship were intimately connected.
In the first years he was in the fortunate position of learning as his seniors learned, for the whole science of ship construction was in the throes of transition, from wood to iron and from sail to steam. Surprisingly early in his career he began to influence the trend of battleship development, partly by his contributions to the Institute of Naval Architects, partly by his work at the admiralty, partly by his articles in current periodicals. In the admiralty, though rated only "third class draftsman," he became the direct assistant to the Director of Naval Construction, holding this position through a change in the occupancy of that office, and, under direction of his chiefs, aided in the design of the earlier armored vessels.
While at the admiralty he was assigned to lecture at the Royal School of Naval Architecture, whose first graduating class he had headed not many years before, and it was in the role of instructor to the young men sent there by the foreign governments that he first exerted an influence on the development of the navies of other nations.
White left the admiralty for a time and took service with Armstrong’s, where he secured invaluable experience, not only in the design of war vessels for Argentina, China, Japan and other governments, but also in the organization and administration of shipyards, thereby rendering himself all the more useful to his government when it called him to the position of Director of Naval Construction.
In connection with the history of White’s career, the author treats interestingly of the problems progressively confronting the designers as the perfection of their art increased; of the various arrangements of armor, armament, and the like, proposed and adopted and of the controversies raging, at times, around these questions. Quotations from White’s letters and papers and excerpts from contemporary documents deal at length with such matters, and furnish also, informing details regarding the technical difficulties encountered and the reasons for the adoption of various Solutions.
To the naval architect the book is of particular interest. To the naval officer in general it offers an interesting outline of the development of his ship, with occasional excursions to the realm of organization and administration; for one of White’s most notable achievements was the reorganization of the dockyards, both internally, and in their relationship to the admiralty.
The book is not light reading.
R. N. S. B.