Thomas Lloyd CB (1803–1875) was an English naval architect and engineer of the nineteenth century known principally for his work on the development of the marine engine in the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

.'Memoir of the Late Thomas Lloyd, CB', Transactions of the Royal Institution of Naval Architects, Volume 17 (1876), 342-4

Biography

Early life and education

Thomas Lloyd was born at Portsea,

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

on 23 October 1803. There he received his early education with Rev John Neave. He then proceeded to the

School of Naval Architecture A school is an educational institution designed to provide learning spaces and learning environments for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is sometimes compul ...

, where his father was a practical instructor. Following a competitive examination, Lloyd entered the school on the 1 June 1819. Tutored by some of the foundational educators of Naval Architecture in Britain, including

James Inman James Inman (1776–1859), an English mathematician and astronomer, was professor of mathematics at the Royal Naval College, Portsmouth, and author of ''Inman's Nautical Tables''. Early years Inman was born at Tod Hole in Garsdale, then in the ...

, Lloyd was part of a cohort of leading naval architects in England which included the likes of Augustin Francis Bullock Creuze, William Morgan,

Isaac Watts Isaac Watts (17 July 1674 – 25 November 1748) was an English Congregational minister, hymn writer, theologian, and logician. He was a prolific and popular hymn writer and is credited with some 750 hymns. His works include "When I Survey the ...

, and Jeremiah Owen who emerged from the school in the 1820s before its closure due to political interference in 1837. Lloyd passed his studies with distinction and left on the 1 January 1826.

Early career

Lloyd's first appointment was to Plymouth dockyard where he was employed as a supernumerary officer to acquire information as to the conduct of the general duties and business of the dockyards. Following a further appointment in the design of ships in the Designers Department in the Naval Office, in 1831 he sailed on the Columbine, a vessel within the navy's experimental squadrons, for six months to gain a practical knowledge of the behaviour of ships at sea. In 1831,

recommended that Lloyd be in charge of the wood mill and block making machinery. Lloyd gained important knowledge of steam machinery during his time in the role and he instead became inspector of steam machinery at Woolwich, graduating to become assistant to

Peter Ewart Peter Ewart (14 May 1767 – 15 September 1842) was a British engineer who was influential in developing the technologies of turbines and theories of thermodynamics. Biography He was son of the Church of Scotland minister of Troqueer near Du ...

, then the Chief Engineer and Inspector of Machinery.

Chief Engineer of the Navy

Lloyd quickly climbed the ranks of the Navy's scientific establishment. Following Ewart's death in 1842, Lloyd became Chief Engineer and inspector of Machinery at Woolwich. He held this position for five years, mainly conducting inspection of machinery throughout England and Scotland, and sitting on several important scientific commissions. During this time, he made crucial investigations and experiments into screw propellers, establishing the superiority of Sir

Francis Pettit Smith Sir Francis Pettit Smith (9 February 1808 – 12 February 1874) was an English inventor and, along with John Ericsson, one of the inventors of the screw propeller. He was also the driving force behind the construction of the world's first scr ...

’s invention over the paddle-wheels then in use in the Navy. In 1847, he moved to the Admiralty where he was appointed Chief Engineer of the Navy. Following the 1851 Exhibition, Lloyd and several of along with Sir

Joseph Whitworth Sir Joseph Whitworth, 1st Baronet (21 December 1803 – 22 January 1887) was an English engineer, entrepreneur, inventor and philanthropist. In 1841, he devised the British Standard Whitworth system, which created an accepted standard for scr ...

, John Penn, and

were granted permission by the French Government to visit their arsenals. Their inspection of the Napoleon's screw engines led the royal Navy to commission

HMS Agamemnon (1852) HMS ''Agamemnon'' was a Royal Navy 91-gun battleship ordered by the Admiralty in 1849, in response to the perceived threat from France by their possession of ships of the ''Napoléon'' class. Characteristics She was the first British battl ...

. Fitted with engines of 600

horsepower Horsepower (hp) is a unit of measurement of power, or the rate at which work is done, usually in reference to the output of engines or motors. There are many different standards and types of horsepower. Two common definitions used today are the ...

, the Agamemnon gained speeds greater than had been contemplated previously, and was considered a great success by contemporaries. This development indirectly led to the Agamemnon laying the first

Submarine communications cable A submarine communications cable is a cable laid on the sea bed between land-based stations to carry telecommunication signals across stretches of ocean and sea. The first submarine communications cables laid beginning in the 1850s carried tel ...

connecting England with America in the 1850s, which Lloyd was asked to participate in by the

Atlantic Telegraph Company The Atlantic Telegraph Company was a company formed on 6 November 1856 to undertake and exploit a commercial telegraph cable across the Atlantic ocean, the first such telecommunications link. History Cyrus Field, American businessman and finan ...

. When the combined French and English fleets were preparing to go to the Baltic in 1856, Lloyd suggested solid armour plates to protect the fleets of both navies. The idea was subsequently taken up. La Gloire, built by the French, and the

HMS Warrior (1860) HMS ''Warrior'' is a 40-gun steam-powered armoured frigate"Ironclad" is the general term for armoured warships of this period. Armoured frigates were initially designed for the same role as traditional wooden frigates; this later changed as t ...

, by the English, were the first to adopt the system that would revolutionise naval warfare. Lloyd witnessed the effects of plating war ships during the

Crimean War The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia. Geopolitical causes of the war included the de ...

Later life

Lloyd took retirement in 1869. The year prior he was made companion to the

Order of Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which involved bathing (as a symbol of purification) as o ...

. In recommending his investment, Sir

Robert Spencer Robinson Admiral Sir Robert Spencer Robinson, (6 January 1809 – 27 July 1889) was a British naval officer, who served as two five-year terms as Controller of the Navy from February 1861 to February 1871, and was therefore responsible for the procuremen ...

noted that " Mr. Lloyd, more than to anyone else, is due the successful application of the screw to the propulsion of steam-ships; and it was owing to his enlightened knowledge and his zealous exertions that the Royal Navy was enabled to take the lead in its application to ships of war." Lloyd survived to see the revival of the profession of naval architecture, which had sustained severe setbacks during the 1840s and 1850s, and he became the Vice President of the Institution of Naval Architecture, which was formed in the 1860s. Lloyd died of a seizure in 1875.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lloyd, Thomas 1803 births 1875 deaths British naval architects Companions of the Order of the Bath 19th-century English architects People from Portsmouth