Frederick Henry of Chapman

Frederick Henry of Chapman is the author of the four reproductions of ship drawings that we sell. They are taken from his work ARCHITECTURA NAVALIS MERCATORIA from the year 1768.

This panel work, consisting of 62 copper engravings with construction drawings, as well as later writings, combined with his activities as a shipbuilder - created his great national and international fame.

He was born in 1721. The family was English and moved to Sweden in 1715 when the father went into Swedish military service , e.g.

At the age of 15, he went to sea for the first time and at the same time began to learn shipbuilding. He studied and practiced during the 1730s and 40s in Swedish and English shipyards and became a shipyard owner in Gothenburg. In the early 1750s, he continued with theoretical studies, in Sweden with the mathematician Fredrik Palmquist and in London with the well-known professor Thomas Simpson. He then continued with practical studies in England, Holland and France. Even now he had shown himself so distinguished that he was offered entry into both French and English service.

From 1757, when he returned to Sweden, he held a position with the crown as a master shipbuilder, with progressively higher ranks. He worked as a shipbuilder in Stralsund, Sveaborg and Stockholm and in 1781 became manager of the shipyard in Karlskrona: he was ennobled in 1772 and in 1791 reached the title of vice admiral.

Before Chapman came to Karlskrona, he had worked as a shipbuilder for the archipelago fleet. As shipyard manager in Karlskrona, he was in charge of the navy. Despite the uplift that began with Gustaf III's accession to power, it was at this time in a miserable condition. Several ships were rotten, others had substandard tackle, crews and commanders were untrained, the supply situation was unsatisfactory. With Chapman, the most brilliant period in the Karlskrona yard's history began. Even before Chapman became shipyard manager, he had had to build a prototype for a new type of liner: the prototype received f.ö. the name Vasa. It differed from its predecessor in being less drafty: it had a lower superstructure than older ships, but had the guns placed higher up. Following this template, Chapman built ten such sixty-gun ships of the line over four years, and during the same period an equal number of forty-gun frigates, as well as several other smaller vessels. Planks and planking timbers were sawn according to templates, so that on the same day a pile bed became free by launching, new ships could be keel-stretched on it. Every three months regularly new launches could take place! This says it all about Chapman's genius, power, knowledge and organizational skills.

With Chapman, shipbuilding moved from the practical craft tradition to becoming a theoretical science. This appears clearly in the construction calculations Chapman reports in his printed works. On his farm, the originally built Skärfva in Augerum outside Karlskrona, he also conducted experiments with models in a specially constructed water tank. He naturally tried – like all other shipbuilders – to find the shape of the ship against which the water would offer the least resistance when it was propelled. Even after leaving office, he continued to be active in Skärfva and in Karlskrona until his death in 1808. His burial is in the Augerum cemetery.

The four reproductions we have for sale - from ARCHITECTURA NAVALIS MERCATORIA, give a good picture of Chapman's theoretical knowledge, technical skill and aesthetic mind. Three are drawings of different types of merchant ships and one drawing shows a privateer ship. Two of the merchant ships are frigates, one (XVI) according to the terminology of the time built as a cat (length 43 m, width 10 m, load capacity 852 tons - dimensions recalculated from older measurements foot and beam.), the other (XXI) built as a barque ( 46 m long, 11 m wide, load capacity 1,286 tons). The third merchant ship (LI) is an English East Indiaman with a length of 40 m and a beam of 10 m. The privateer (XXXI) is a frigate. 47 m long and 12 m wide: that for 40 guns. Has a crew of 400 men and has storage facilities for 5 months of provisions and 2.5 months of water.

This text is an extract from the text sheet that accompanies a purchase of one or more of the drawings. And was written by Robert Weisz. The blades have the logo of the company he ran. D&RW - Dagmar & Robert Weisz.