Director of Naval Construction (Royal Navy)

The Director of Naval Construction (often shortened to D.N.C.) was the principal officer responsible to the Board of Admiralty for the design and construction of the warships of the Royal Navy.

History

The official in charge of ship design was called the Assistant Surveyor. Until 1848 there was one, and on 4 May of that year a second Assistant Surveyor was appointed, both with salaries of £800 per annum, including all allowances. In 1858 the Assistant Surveyor, now one in number, became First Assistant-Surveyor and his salary increased from £800 per year to £900. In 1860 the Surveyor of the Navy became Controller of the Navy and the First Assistant Surveyor became Chief Constructor. By Order in Council of 9 August, 1872, the Chief Constructor became Chief Naval Architect. When a Council of Construction was formed on 16 December the Chief Naval Architect also became President of the Council of Construction. His duties were given as:

The Chief Naval Architect will be responsible to the Controller for all matters of design and construction in the hulls of ships and boats, including masting and all nautical apparatus, whether building in the Dockyards or by contract.
No alteration is to be made to be made in any ship under repair without its being submitted to him.

By Order in Council of 13 May, 1875, the Chief Naval Architect became the Director of Naval Construction.

From 1883 onwards he was also head of the Royal Corps of Naval Constructors, the naval architects who staffed his department.

In October, 1911, the Admiralty announced that Sir Philip Watts would be succeeded by Sir William E. Smith, the Superintendent of Construction Accounts and Contract Work. A day later Winston Churchill became First Lord of the Admiralty. In June, 1912, a month after Watts should have retired, Churchill told the House of Commons: "I have decided not to proceed further with the appointment of Sir William Smith, whose services are more usefully employed as Superintendent of Contract Work than as Director of Naval Construction." Ironically the Parliamentary and Financial Secretary to the Admiralty, Thomas J. Macnamara, had told the House just weeks earlier about "the number of men of great distinction who began life as dockyard apprentices". Smith had begun in the Rope House at Portsmouth Dockyard. Instead the position of Director of Naval Construction went to Eustace H. W. T. d'Eyncourt, who began as an apprentice outside the Royal Dockyards.

With the retirement of Sir Victor Shepheard in 1958 the position was replaced with that of Director-General, Ships. D.N.C.'s modern equivalent is Director Ships in the Defence Equipment and Support organisation of the Ministry of Defence.

Directors

• John Edye, 1832 – 1857?  (as Assistant Surveyor)
• Isaac Watts, 1848 – 1863  (as Assistant Surveyor)
• Edward J. Reed, 1863^{[Citation needed]} – 1870  (as Chief Constructor of the Navy)
• Sir Nathaniel Barnaby, 1872 – 1885  (as Chief Constructor of the Navy)
• Sir William H. White, 1885^{[Citation needed]} – 31 January, 1902
• Colonel Sir Philip Watts, 3 February, 1902 – 1 August, 1912
• Sir Eustace H. W. Tennyson- d'Eyncourt, Bart., 1 August, 1912 – 1924
• Sir William J. Berry, 1 January 1924 – 1930
• Sir Arthur W. Johns, 23 January, 1930 – 1936
• Sir Stanley V. Goodall‎, 25 July 1936 – 21 January, 1944
• Sir Charles S. Lillicrap, 22 January, 1944 – 30 September, 1951
• Sir Victor G. Shepheard, 1 October, 1951 – 30 September, 1958

Assistant Directors

• Sir Arthur W. Johns, November, 1920

See Also

• Instructions for the Director of Naval Construction
• Royal Corps of Naval Constructors
• Wikipedia

Bibliography

• Copy of "the Minute of the board of Admiralty respecting the Reconstruction of the Officer of the Surveyor of the Navy". H.C. 393 (1848).
• The Orders in Council for the Regulation of the Naval Service. Vol. II. London: For Her Majesty's Stationary Office. 1864.
• "Chronology." The Journal of the Royal Corps of Naval Constructors Association. 1 (July, 1947). p. 30.
• Brown, D. K. (1984). A Century of Naval Construction: The History of the Royal Corps of Naval Constructors, 1883-1983. London: Conway Maritime Press Ltd. ISBN 085177282X.