John Francis Coates,

OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(30 March 1922 – 10 July 2010) was a British

naval architect This is the top category for all articles related to architecture and its practitioners. {{Commons category, Architecture by occupation Design occupations Occupations Occupation commonly refers to: *Occupation (human activity), or job, one's rol ...

best known for his work on the study of construction of the

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

trireme A trireme ( ; ; cf. ) was an ancient navies and vessels, ancient vessel and a type of galley that was used by the ancient maritime civilizations of the Mediterranean Sea, especially the Phoenicians, ancient Greece, ancient Greeks and ancient R ...

. His research led to the construction of the first working replica of triremes, the fastest and most devastating warship of Classical Mediterranean empires, and gave a greater understanding of how they were built and used. He also carried out research into the use of shipping in Northern Europe during the

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

, in particular the Ferriby Bronze Age boat and the Dover Boat.

Career

Coates was born and raised in

Swansea Swansea ( ; ) is a coastal City status in the United Kingdom, city and the List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, second-largest city of Wales. It forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area, officially known as the City and County of ...

, the son of chemists Ada and Joseph Edward Coates, Professor of Chemistry at the University College of Swansea. He was educated at

Clifton College Clifton College is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school in the city of Bristol in South West England, founded in 1862 and offering both boarding school, boarding and day school for pupils aged 13–18. In its early years, unlike mo ...

and took Engineering Science at

The Queen's College, Oxford The Queen's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford, England. The college was founded in 1341 by Robert de Eglesfield in honour of Philippa of Hainault, queen of England. It is distinguished by its predominantly neoclassi ...

. He joined the Royal Corps of Naval Constructors and in 1943 saw sea service on the Arctic convoys. After the war, he continued to work in the Admiralty. An early project was the design of new inflatable life jackets and life rafts for which he was appointed

in 1955. He was the leading ship design architect for the

County-class destroyer The County class was a class of British guided missile destroyers, the first such warships built by the Royal Navy. Designed specifically around the Seaslug (missile), Seaslug anti-aircraft missile system, the primary role of these ships was ar ...

s. Coates remained in Admiralty service until 1979 when he retired from the post of Chief Naval Architect.

Trireme reconstruction

In 1982 he was approached by Professor John Morrison of

Wolfson College, Cambridge Wolfson College () is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. The majority of students at the college are postgraduates. The college also admits "mature" undergraduates (aged 21 and above), with around ...

to assist with research into the design of the

. Together they and others founded the Trireme Trust, and created a series of scale models and a full scale cross section based on historical records, archaeological evidence and the science of naval architecture. Coates developed a complete design, encompassing more than 40 sheets of plans and 100 pages of specifications, which enabled the construction of a full-scale replica, the

Olympias Olympias (; c. 375–316 BC) was a Ancient Greeks, Greek princess of the Molossians, the eldest daughter of king Neoptolemus I of Epirus, the sister of Alexander I of Epirus, the fourth wife of Philip of Macedon, Philip II, the king of Macedonia ...

, funded by the Greek government's Ministries of Defense and Tourism in 1987. Coates oversaw the accuracy of the construction, including the manner in which the hull shell was held together by 20,000 pinned mortise-and-tenon joints. In 1989, he was awarded an Honorary Degree (Doctor of Science) by the

University of Bath The University of Bath is a public research university in Bath, England. Bath received its royal charter in 1966 as Bath University of Technology, along with a number of other institutions following the Robbins Report. Like the University ...

. He also researched the archaeological remains of Bronze Age seagoing ships in Northern Europe, exploring their seaworthiness.

Personal life

Coates married Jane Waymouth in 1954, she predeceased him in 2008. He died on 10 July 2010, leaving two sons and five granddaughters. Coates' elder brother, chemist Geoffrey E. Coates, died in Laramie, Wyoming, in 2013.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Coates, John 1922 births People educated at Clifton College Alumni of the Queen's College, Oxford British naval historians 2010 deaths British naval architects Royal Navy personnel of World War II Officers of the Order of the British Empire People from Swansea