Ships and Shipbuilders by Fred M Walker

Author:Fred M Walker
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HISTORY / Military / Naval
ISBN: 9781783830404
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2010-05-04T16:00:00+00:00

*HMS Gannet, a composite naval sloop built in 1876, can be viewed at the Chatham Historic Dockyard.

Hercules Linton

1836–1900

ONE OF THE ADMIRABLE traditions of shipbuilding is that the credit for a new ship is given not to individuals but collectively to the builders. Most naval architects have shared in the team pride as a ‘new-building’ leaves the yard for the sea. However, from time to time an individual ship is attributed publicly to her designer, and two notable examples come to mind, both ships with an imperishable name. The Clyde-built clipper ship Cutty Sark designed by Hercules Linton, and her most deadly rival, the Aberdeen built Thermopylæ which came from the drawing board of Bernard Waymouth.

Hercules Linton was born in Inverbervie, a small town 40km (25 miles) south of Aberdeen, then in the County of Kincardineshire. Schooling was at the nearby village of Arbuthnott, and later at Arbroath Academy. His father had trained as a shipwright, and was an independent ship surveyor and was friendly with the Hall family of Aberdeen, the proprietors of the shipyard of Alexander Hall and Company, which had been founded in 1790. The first concrete evidence of Hercules Linton’s career is that on 1 January he was indentured to Alexander Hall and then served five years as an apprentice. Clearly his unusually late start did him little harm as he was ‘fast-tracked’ for promotion and rose to a position of some responsibility within the company. Hall’s were a distinguished yard, having in 1840 built the Scottish Maid, the forerunners of the Aberdeen Clippers, and during the period Linton served there (from 1855 to c 1863) he had wide experience working on their considerable output including several full-rigged ships like the Robin Hood and the Friar Tuck for the China tea trade.

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