John Randall (1755–1802) was an English shipbuilder.

Life

The son of John Randall, shipbuilder of

Rotherhithe Rotherhithe ( ) is a district of South London, England, and part of the London Borough of Southwark. It is on a peninsula on the south bank of the Thames, facing Wapping, Shadwell and Limehouse on the north bank, with the Isle of Dogs to the ea ...

, he had a liberal education, and on the death of his father, around 1776, continued the shipbuilding business under his own management. He also worked on mathematics, and naval construction. In addition to many ships which he built for the mercantile marine and for the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...

, Randall built over 50 naval vessels. They included 74-gun ships and large

frigate A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied. The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed and maneuvera ...

s, among them being HMS ''Audacious'', HMS ''Ramillies'', and HMS ''Culloden'', noted in the

French Revolutionary Wars The French Revolutionary Wars () were a series of sweeping military conflicts resulting from the French Revolution that lasted from 1792 until 1802. They pitted French First Republic, France against Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain, Habsb ...

. He took a prominent part in founding the Society of Naval Architects. On the

Peace of Amiens The Treaty of Amiens (, ) temporarily ended hostilities between France, the Spanish Empire, and the United Kingdom at the end of the War of the Second Coalition. It marked the end of the French Revolutionary Wars; after a short peace it set t ...

, Randall lowered his rates of pay from the wartime level, and his men went out on strike. The Admiralty permitted him to take on workmen from the

Deptford dockyard Deptford Dockyard was an important Royal Navy Dockyard, naval dockyard and base at Deptford on the River Thames, operated by the Royal Navy from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries. It built and maintained warships for 350 years, and man ...

, and offered a military force to protect them, which was turned down. The Deptford men were prevented from working in his yard; and some violence occurred. At this point Randall died, at his house in Great Cumberland Street, Hyde Park, on 23 August 1802. He left a widow and family.

Notes

;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Randall, John 1755 births 1802 deaths English shipbuilders