John Isaac Thornycroft Essay

Sir John Isaac Thornycroft (1843-1928) was a British Naval architect, engineer, and founder of the shipbuilding institution, John I Thornycroft & Company Limited. He is noted for having partially designed and built the first Royal Naval torpedo boat as well as designing and improving upon the machinery involved in this class of ship. Thornycroft is also credited with modifying the hull and propeller designs of naval ships as well as designing ship stabilizers. In particular Thornycroft's company is noted for its work on streamlining Naval designs, its work on torpedo ships, and Naval Destroyers. John Isaac Thornycroft was born on February 1, 1843 in Rome, Italy to Thomas Thornycroft (1815-1885) and Mary Francis (1809-1895) both of whom were British sculptors. Thornycroft showed an early interest in ship building, and is reputed to have built a steam …show more content…
Ltd. and moved his firm's larger projects to the Woolston shipyards in Southampton. By 1908, necessity required that the company also establish the Hampton Launch Works on Platts Eyot near Hampton Middlesex. In these facilities the Thornycroft Company would assist and advise John Arbuthnot Fisher (1841-1920) in his determination to modernize the British navy in the years prior to the First World War (1914-1918). Moreover during this time Thornycroft continued to work for the Royal Navy being contracted to design and build coastal vessels and Naval Destroyers. Though, his son, John Edward Thornycroft (1872-1960) took over the shipbuilding company in 1908 and Sir John Isaac Thornycroft died June 28, 1928 in Bembridge, Isle of Wight, England the company of Thornycroft would continue on, in a variety of corporate forms influencing the coming century of Royal Navy craft, public vessels and their designs. Thornycroft & Company would eventually be merged with Vosper & Company in 1966, thereafter be known first as Vosper Thornycroft and later as the VT