Description
A boy, born in 1767 in the small market town of Fakenham in rural Norfolk, was an unlikely candidate to later hold the most important shipbuilding post in the Royal Navy. During his time in the post of Surveyor of the Navy, Seppings also played a significant role in the transition from wood to iron ships being responsible for designing the Royal Navy’s very first, but largely forgotten, steam-driven vessel, the Congo; forgotten because it was never commissioned. Seppings had made his name inventing a method which solved the back-breaking task of lifting ships in dry dock. In also making improvements to the bows of ships, so saving many seamens’ lives, and the safe mooring of laid-up ships and preparing them for action again, he was arguably the ablest of all the men who held the post of Surveyor of the Navy and was amongst the greatest builders ever to construct wooden ships.
Peter Elphick’s careful and meticulous research uncovers this unlikely ‘back-room’ hero of the French and Napoleonic Wars. His work on improving dry-docking operations resulted in much faster turn-round times for ships in port undergoing repair and maintenance in a period when the navy was always short of ships. A fast turn around for repair was vital in forestalling Boneparte’s invasion plans and helped to ensure British victory at sea against the French.
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