The Search for Speed Under Sail 1700 - 1855

Decorative, unclipped dustjacket in very good condition except slight edge wear along the top and bottom, crease on top rear, some sun fading. Navy blue hardbound cloth boards with gold gilt title and author on the spine, are in very good condition with only slight edge wear to top and bottom of spine. All corners are sharp with only the slightest of wear. Spine has a very slight slant. Hinges are firmly attached to the endpapers with no cracking. Text block is solid and all pages are firmly attached. interior pages are clean with no tears, cracks or previous owner marks. Oversized book may require extra postage. One of America's leading historians of naval architecture approaches the problem of speed comparisons of sailing vessels that vary widely in size and time of construction to answer the question of quality of speed in sailing craft. He has done this by application of a "dimensionless" analysis of each ship, in order to arrive at an accurate evaluation of relative design excellence. Howard Irving Chapelle (1901 – 1975) was an American naval architect, and curator of maritime history at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. In addition, he authored many books and articles on maritime history and marine architecture. From 1919, he worked as a marine apprentice and designer for a number of shipbuilders. After 1936, he went into business for himself, and later served as head of the New England section of the Historic American Merchant Marine Survey, a New Deal project designed to research American naval history and staffed by unemployed marine architects. During World War II, Chapelle served in the United States Army Transportation Corps ship and boatbuilding program, rising to lieutenant colonel. In 1950, he ventured to England, where he researched colonial ship design on a Guggenheim fellowship. In 1956/57, he served the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization as a consultant on fishing boat construction to the government of Turkey. Upon returning to America, he was appointed Division of Transportation curator of the National Museum of History and Technology. Ten years later, in 1967, he stepped down as curator to assume the role of senior historian. He retired in 1971, accepting the title of historian emeritus.