Richard Hall Gower
Richard Hall Gower was an English sea captain, philosopher, inventor and entrepreneur.
Mariner
Richard was the youngest son of Rev. Foote Gower, physician and antiquarian, and Elizabeth, a sister of John Strutt, Member of Parliament for Maldon. He won a scholarship to Winchester College. He left school, "thankfully", to join the British East India Company as a midshipman in the vessel Essex carrying troops and invalids. He was a lively and observant lad. At the age of 16 he was promoted captain of the main top, where he waged active war with the lads of the fore top, shrouds and stays providing the high roads of communication. He was noted for his spirit and ingenuity, his depth of knowledge of his ship and his skill as a ship model maker; unravelling stockings to obtain rigging materials.When he returned to England after his first three-year voyage, he studied navigation at Edmonton and, on rejoining ship, was dubbed "the young philosopher". Ever inventive, he once fitted a canvas speaking tube from the main top to the deck, installing it overnight to surprise and please his captain. To his bitter dismay, his captain had it removed instantly saying he was sure the topmen would "use it for an improper purpose". Gower rose to chief mate of the Essex and qualified as a captain. He returned to shore in 1783 to teach at Edmonton and to publish his Practical Guide that eventually went into at least three editions. He designed, and applied for a patent for a Ship's log very similar to the logs employed to this day. He turned down the offer of the command of an East Indiaman to make ship models and to pursue his interest in naval architecture and in the, then much needed, improvement of ship design.
Empirical Philosopher
The Age of Reason and the Industrial Revolution had brought experimental enquiry, scientific reasoning and, thus, engineering to bear on the legends, traditions and practices of all the crafts. Naval architects and shipwrights were no exceptions. Richard Gower quoted a Mr Mackonochie "... in a mechanical point of view is the feeblest, most inartificial, and unworkmanlike structure in the whole range of mechanics". Gower continued to the effect that almost any vessel, however badly it may sail, would probably get there in the end, if the wind and weather be fair. That, he thought, was not nearly good enough. He was among the first to bring empirical science to bear on naval architecture. His intention was to so improve ship design that, in whatever wind and weather, vessels would sail safely, speedily and economically with a crew properly accommodated and put to no unnecessary risk.Traditionally, the design of hulls, rigging, sails and outfittings had been the provinces of several separate specialists. Commonly, shipyards built the hulls of vessels and, after launching, riggers and sailmakers outfitted them. Most innovation was confined to improvement of the hull, to increase carrying capacity of merchantmen and to improve the stability of warships as gun platforms. The results were broad, squat boxes, hydrodynamically inefficient, with squalid accommodation for the crew and complicated rigging that entailed much very dangerous work aloft.
It was just about the turn of the century that both the Royal Navy and the Royal Mail recognised the need for fast vessels for scouting and for carrying messages and mail to and from the United Kingdom and her dominions and colonies overseas. These newly recognised tasks required new designs of vessels and new opportunities for invention. Gower was among those who saw a vessel as a single entity in which all the parts, hull, rigging, sails and, in Gower's view, the crew, should relate to each other in ways appropriate to the task to be performed. This entailed giving greater consideration to designing the vessel as a whole, rather than leaving it to the various crafts to perform their respective works as best they could. Today, we would call his approach "holistic".
By this time, to be successful, innovations had to be well founded in good science, properly protected against plagiarism by letters patent and backed by the Crown, government, patrons or merchant venturers. So Gower defended most of his ideas with an applications for patents, in which he expounded the physical theories he believed supported his innovations as well as describing the matters which he claimed to be original inventions. He then sought every opportunity of stalking the corridors of power and seeking contacts in high places. He proposed no innovation that did not make sound military or commercial sense.
Inventor
Gower and his family removed to Nova Scotia House at Ipswich in 1817. There he devoted himself to the invention, patenting, design and building of a remarkable series of novel vessels including three vessels named Transit, a fly boat, two yachts the Unique and the Gower, the Landguard Fort Lifeboat, and a number of other inventions. He entered, but did not win, a competition for a novel form of lock for the Regent's Canal. He suggested that, to protect coastal traffic, cruisers be stationed along the coast in communication with signal stations to provide a concerted defence system. He proposed a form of vertical-vaned windmill; an eye shade; various ship's logs and a "double-barrelled" capstan to do two jobs at once. He suggested a non-elastic substitute for imported hempen standing rigging to be made of wooden cylinders joined together by iron straps. He devised a method of keeping ships at proper distances by using the mast as a base line. He invented a mode of dropping a guess warp anchor with such accuracy that its end could be easily found and lifted. He devised a novel method of fidding a topgallant mast and several contrivances for the "better nipping and stopping a cable". He designed a long catamaran for forming a life raft and a form of floating sea anchor, or drogue anchor like an umbrella. He created a set of signals, that could be seen from all angles, using shapes instead of flags. He also suggested using a floating compass needle to find North. He experimented with various designs of paddle wheel on the River Lee Canal that anticipated the design of the wheels used by steam paddlers many years later. He invented and built the Landguard Fort Lifeboat, which carried up to 25 people and was virtually unsinkable. He proposed fitting canal barges with 'spud wheels' that could propel the vessel by catching on the canal bottom. He saw that a combination of paddle wheels and spud wheels could take vessels over mud flats at various conditions of the tide. Gower also constructed a twin hulled catamaran, just ten feet long, on which he mounted a barrel of water that drained to underwater by a curved pipe pointing aft. His twin floats achieved two miles per hour apparently without the need for power from sail or steam. He thus demonstrated water jet propulsion. He anticipated that a steam water pump, so contrived, could propel vessels without the need for paddles. He gives credit to Dr Franklin and a Mr Rumsay of Philadelphia for this idea and hoped that his little experiment would encourage others to pursue the notion.Entrepreneur
The design, building and sailing of the vessels Transit and the promotion of the novel ideas that he incorporated in them, occupied much of his life. The most original features of these vessels were their slab sides above, and the concave and convex sweeps of the hull, below the waterline, the Joints scarfed and bolted rather than chocked and treenailed, ballast was iron cast into special shapes to sit just above the deadwood and between the floor timbers and the narrowest part of the hull above the keel was reinforced by strong cross timbers bolted through the sides. Such extensive use of iron was a novel feature at the time.Gower observed that conventional vessels were box-like and needed much movement of the rudder from side to side to preserve a steady course. When running fast, they often suffered total loss of steerage because the water failed "to close over the rudder" and left it in a "mere hole or vacuum in the water". He appreciated too that drag is proportionate to the wetted surface of the hull, and that a long narrow hull with a deep narrow keel makes for speed. In the case of the Transit, the tapering lines also allowed the rudder to hang abaft the general spread of the bottom. This "enlivened" the steering; yet the rudder was not vulnerable to damage when the vessel grounded. Except when she was to put about, a spoke of the helm either way could steer the Transit.
Several attempts to arouse the interest of the Hon. East India Company and the Royal Mail. These failed, and the Transit loaded cargo and sailed to join convoy in June 1801. While waiting for the convoy to assemble, Gower, ever the salesman, showed her off to the King and his party on the Royal Yacht in Christchurch Bay. Gower learned later that, although George III had asked many questions about the Transit, none present had been able to answer him and none thought to ask the inventor who was nearby. Later the Chairman of the Hon. East India Company summoned Gower to a meeting. Gower says that the chairman said that the Company would buy the Transit, provided she proved to be a fast-sailing vessel. At the instance of Earl St Vincent, now the First Lord of the Admiralty, the Transit was tried against Osprey. She was a fast sloop of 383 tons and, according to Gower, the commander of Osprey was generous in his praise. To Gower's chagrin, no order was forthcoming and he had to re-ship his cargo and join convoy for Lisbon on 27 August. The important question of what happened to change the decision of the Company is, as yet, unresolved. Perhaps Gower put a gloss on the intention of the Chairman of the Company or on the opinion of Osprey's captain. Perhaps someone in the Admiralty tampered with Osprey's report before forwarding it to the Company. Perhaps there was some aspect of the design of the Transit, say her problems in shallow tidal harbours, or the strange way of her sailing, that killed off the Company's enthusiasm. Maybe there is still a note in some archive that could tell us why the Transit did not become the first of a new generation of fast traders.