1600 - 2000

Why is a “naval architect” not called a “naval engineer”? The profession of naval architecture is unique among engineers – civil, electrical and mechanicals all call themselves “engineers”, but naval and maritime professionals persist in using the word “architect”. This lecture explores where the term comes from, how has it changed, in relation to other engineer professions, and what it mean today.

Brothers at Arms: American Independence and the Men of France and Spain Who Saved It. Alfred A. Knopf, 2016 (Pulitzer Prize Finalist in History 2017 ; Journal of the American Revolution Book of the Year 2016)

Measure of the Earth: The Enlightenment Expedition that Reshaped Our World. New York: Basic Books, 2011 (Physics World Top 10 books of 2011)

Ships and Science: The Birth of Naval Architecture in the Scientific Revolution, 1600-1800. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2007 (North American Society for Oceanic History award, best science, and technology book, 2007)

Technology of the Ships of Trafalgar (editor). Madrid: UPM, 2006

Bridging the Seas: The Rise of Naval Architecture in the Industrial Age, 1800-2000. In process

GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY

lferreir@gmu.edu

https://historyarthistory.gmu.edu/people/lferreir

LARRIE D. FERREIRO

Larrie D. Ferreiro is a naval architect and historian. He is the author of Ships and Science: The Birth of Naval Architecture in the Scientific Revolution, 1600-1800, and Bridging the Seas: The Rise of Naval Architecture in the Industrial Age, 1800-2000, both published under MIT Press. He is the 2017 Pulitzer finalist for History, for his book Brothers at Arms: American Independence and the Men of France and Spain Who Saved It. He received his Ph.D. in the History of Science, Technology, and Engineering from Imperial College London, and received his graduate and undergraduate degrees in naval architecture from (respectively) University College London and the University of Michigan. He teaches history and engineering at George Mason University in Virginia and the Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey. He has been a naval architect and systems engineer for over forty years in the US Navy, US Coast Guard, and Department of Defense, and was an exchange naval architect in the French Navy. He lives with his wife and their sons in Virginia.