Fredrik Henrik af Chapman
Encyclopedia
Fredrik Henrik af Chapman (September 9, 1721 in Gothenburg
– August 19, 1808) was a Swedish shipbuilder, scientist and officer in the Swedish navy. He was also manager of the Karlskrona
shipyard 1782-1793. Chapman is credited as the first person to apply scientific methods to shipbuilding and is considered to be the first naval architect
.
Chapman was the author of Architectura Navalis Mercatoria (1768) and several other shipbuilding-related works. His Tractat om Skepps-Byggeriet ("Treatise on Shipbuilding") published in 1775 is a pioneering work in modern naval architecture. He was the first shipbuilder in Northern Europe to introduce prefabrication
in shipyards and managed to produce several series of ships in record time.
He was ennobled as "af Chapman" in 1772, after the successful coup of Swedish king Gustav III
.
) who had moved to Sweden in 1715 and joined the Swedish navy
in 1716. His mother was Susanna Colson, the daughter of London shipwright William Colson. He showed a talent for shipbuilding when he made his first body plan based on a drawing of an Ostende privateer given to him by Flemish shipwright. Chapman went to sea in 1736, at the age of fifteen, and spent his late teens working in both private and state shipyards. In 1741, he helped build a Spanish merchant vessel, a project that provided him with enough money to allow him to work as a ship's carpenter in London 1741-44. After his stay in England, he returned to Gothenburg and established a shipyard with a Swedish merchant named Bagge. Together they built a few small vessels and provided maintenance work for the Swedish East India Company
.
, who had worked out methods for calculating the volume of irregular surfaces and bodies. After one year of studies in London, he went on to study shipbuilding at the British royal dockyards in Woolwich
, Chatham
and Deptford
.
Chapman recorded his extensive research of British shipbuilding in several documents, including an 8-page handwritten document titled Directions for Building of a Ship of 50 Guns, where he described construction methods as well as the British method of launching ships. His activities attracted the interests of the British naval authorities and upon leaving Deptfort in 1753, he was arrested, his papers confiscated and was then charged with trying to lure shipyards workers into French service. France and Great Britain were at the time bitter rivals, and both Sweden and Denmark were active in uncovering British manufacturing methods as well as trying to persuade British shipwrights into their service. Chapman was kept under house arrest for about one month at the cost of half a guinea
per day, though still allowed to visit London with an escort. All of his documents were returned to him except a rigging plan. After his release, he stayed a few months to study experimental physics and took lessons in engraving
.
In 1754, Chapman continued his educational tour by going to the Netherlands and in 1755 to France, where he was given permission to stay at the royal shipyards at Brest
to observe warship construction. There he observed the complete process of construction of the French 60-gun ship Célèbre from keel-laying to rigging under the French shipwright Geoffrey the Elder. He also made line drawings and plans of several French ships, including the huge Ville de Paris
and the 64-gun Bienfaisant and pen and ink drawings of ship decorations. The experience in Brest is believed to have made a deep impression on Chapman, later contributing to his conviction that 60-gun ships were the most appropriate for Swedish service.
The French authorities were the first to recognize Chapman's skills and attempted to convince him to stay and enter service for France, an offer he declined. After Chapman returned to London in 1756, the First Lord of the Admiralty tried to do the same, and came close to succeeding by using patriotic appeals to Chapman's British heritage. In his memoirs, Chapman wrote that he would likely have stayed had the current First Lord not lost his office soon after their meeting. Instead, he was recruited by the Swedish minister in Paris, Ulrik Scheffer, later Minister of External Affairs under Gustav III.
at the age of 36. Soon after his appointment, he drafted his ideal plans for docks, which included facilities for properly ventilated sail storage and advanced dock pumps that could be powered by human power, horses or wind mills. The plans would, however, not be realized until much later, when Chapman was made chief shipwright of the Karlskrona yards.
In November 1758 to April of 1759, he was charged with a timber inspection cruise along the coasts from Turku
up to the Gulf of Bothnia
. Later, Chapman moved first to Stralsund
(then a Swedish possession) where he stayed until 1762, and later to Sveaborg where he stayed until 1764. His first major assignment came in 1760. The recently-formed archipelago fleet
(skärgårdsflottan), an inshore fleet independent of the navy under the command of the army, was in need of new vessels to replace the galleys which had proved problematic in the war against Prussia that had broken out in 1757. The commander of the archipelago fleet Augustin Ehrensvärd
and the man in charge of the construction of the new naval base and fortress of Sveaborg began a successful collaboration with Chapman in designing new types of what would later be called "archipelago frigates" (skärgårdsfregatter). Inspired by Russian "chebecks" (variants of Mediterranean xebec
s, hybrid sailing ships that incorporated features of galleys), the two created craft that could be rowed, but with heavier armament and additional protection for the crew, a necessity in the cold Baltic climate. The cooperation resulted in four new types of archipelago frigates: udema
s, pojama, turuma
and hemmema
, all named after the Finnish names of Swedish provinces in Finland, the coasts of which they were intended to protect.
By closely examining drawings of ships with known good sailing qualities Chapman realized that the framework should be divided in a certain progression. The frames should decrease from the place of greatest width in the same relation as the ordinates 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 etc (pictured), where the arc ABC is a parabola, AD is the axis and A is the vertex
(the "peak"). This construction method is called the "parabola method". Chapman also introduced the so called "relaxation method", but preferred the former himself.
At Sveaborg, Chapman supervised and led the construction and expansion of the naval yards, including cranes, docks and various buildings. He moved to Stockholm in 1764, but remained in charge of the design of vessels for the archipelago fleet. He was also made a part of a commission that was to propose improvements on the expansion of the high seas navy. Its final report was presented in 1764 and recommended new designs for standardized ships of the line
varying from 50 to 70 guns. The report represented the ideals of a new school of shipwrights that favored scientific methods and the use of theoretical models at early stages in ship design, a view that was in conflict with the old school of shipbuilding which favored slow evolution based on practical experimentation. The old school, represented most prominently by Gilbert Sheldon, came into conflict with the new ideas, but lost the debate when the Board of the Admiralty favored the findings of the commission at the Riksdag
in March 1769 and put Chapman in charge of designing the navy's new warships.
provided the capital while Chapman would contribute his technical skills and experience with shipbuilding. The same year he moved in to a newly built house in Djurgården with his nephew Larg Bogeman and Elisabeth Lindborg, his former housekeeper with whom he had a daughter and son. Chapman constructed a new type of saw mill for the Djurgården yard that replaced the traditional "saw pit" with a circular blade at the center of an octagonal building. A system of chains and pulleys would pull lumber toward the saw, which could receive them from eight different directions.
The Djurgården yard produced several of Chapman's own designs that were successful, including cats, barque
s and East Indiamen
in 1767-79. Some of the latter were named in honor of King Gustav and were launched in the presence of the royal family. This included praise from Carl Michael Bellman
, one of Sweden's most popular composers and at the time a favorite of the court. The yard constructed merchant vessels as well as warships on contract from the military. During Chapman's time at the yard, over 50 vessels of various sizes were constructed, including the first so-called archipelago frigates, the udema
s, pojamas and turuma
s.
in 1718 and Sweden's reduction to the status of a minor power, the country's politics had been dominated by the Riksdag, the Swedish parliament, with frequent intervention by Russia, Great Britain, France and Denmark through bribes and subsidies. Gustav's palace coup established him as a self-defined enlightened despot while curbing the influence of nobility, which had become unpopular through rampant corruption and political intrigues. Inspired by the absolute monarchy
of France, Gustav took great inspiration from the "Sun King" Louis XIV (1638–1715) and allied himself with his successor Louis XV.
Chapman supported the king's boldness and even gave concrete assistance by warehousing ammunition for troops that were loyal to the king. The maneuver paid off since Gustav supported an expansion of both army and navy and singled out Russia as the primary enemy of Swedish interests. The alliance with Louis XV meant that large French subsidies were sent to expand the Swedish military against the common Russian enemy. This provided the funds to finance Chapman's plans to expand the navy with 60- to 70-gun warships of his own design.
as member number 175.
An expansion of the navy was seen as necessary, but the design of the new ships was still a matter of debate in the late 1770s. The old school of shipwrights, most prominently supported by the Sheldon family and senior navy officers like Admiral Carl Tersmeden
in Karlskrona, favored the old design with only minimal alterations based on the older methods of empirically-grounded ship design. The new school, based in Stockholm and Sveaborg had in Chapman its most capable representative and was supported by General Admiral Henrik af Trolle
and the court, pushed for more radical changes and designs based on the theoretical designs and experimental physics and mathematics. Chapman's first proposal for a new standard for ships of the line was the Wasa, completed in 1778. Its superstructures were lowered considerably by removing the poop deck
almost entirely to add stiffness
and the gun decks were placed higher than in older designs to allow them to be used even in rough weather, when the ship rolled.
The Wasa went through sea trials in 1779 where it was compared with Sofia Magdalena, a ship of the older design which was favored by the conservative factions within the establishment. The Wasa to some degree outperformed Sofia Magdalena, but never completely outclassed it. The opposition took advantage while Chapman was convinced he needed to make only minimal adjustments to his design to produce a vastly superior warship. The portrayal of the conflict as conservative reactionaries versus progressive pioneers is shared by several historical authors, including Daniel G. Harris
, Chapman's modern biographer. This includes descriptions of action approaching sabotage in providing substandard rigging material for the Wasa and outright insubordination on the part of Gilbert Sheldon by making the hull 60 cm (2 ft) shorter than planned. Swedish Jan Glete
has argued this description is partial to Chapman and his supporters and stressed the political nature of the conflict; Chapman and af Trolle were both close to the royal circles and their aims coincided with those of king Gustav III, who wished to assert control of the armed forces and to portray himself as an enlightened monarch who encouraged innovation against the conservative navy establishment in Karlskrona.
Chapman also worked out several improvements of the royal shipyards that he supervised, including recommendations for the use of sheds to protect ships from deterioration when they were in reserve, something that was particularly important for the often lightly built galleys. Showing considerable organization skills, he made detailed plans on how to make naval vessels ready for quick mobilization and proposed a more efficient system of management for shipyards based on his experiences in Sweden and abroad.
Requested by king Gustav III
to comment on Patrik Miller's warship Experiment (which Miller had sent to the king) he called it the "English (sic) sea-spook". The king sent Chapman a snuff box filled with rutabaga
seeds. The snuff box, illustrated with marine motifs, including Experiment, is now in the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.
At the age of 60, he was appointed head of the naval shipyard at the main naval base of Karlskrona
. Here, he built new ships and organized production series for ships based on prefabrication
methods, which meant that he could deliver twenty new ships in just three years, ten ships-of-the-line
and ten frigate
s. Chapman also became a pioneer in the application of mathematical calculations in the relation between between rigging, displacement
, water resistance, the center of gravity of hulls, stability and tonnage.
In order to test his mathematical theories, he had a 100 m long pool constructed outside Karlskrona, where he tested various hull designs with scale models. The models were pulled through the water with pulleys and ropes. This method gave realistic values and is similar to the method used today to establish the hydrodynamic features of new hull designs.
, the brother of king Gustav and was published in 1768. The book contained 62 illustrations of ships and smaller vessels, both Swedish and foreign designs. Some of these were Chapman's own designs, but many were also types that he had seen during visits to foreign countries. Everything from large warships to small fishing vessels were represented.
The book was intended for an international audience and the text was available in Swedish, French and English. All measurements were given in Swedish, French and English feet. However, it took seven years to finish the accompanying explanatory texts. The charts and the following Tractat om Skepps-byggeriet ("Treatise on shipbuilding") in 1775 launched Chapman as one of the leading experts on ship building in the world.
Gothenburg
Gothenburg is the second-largest city in Sweden and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated on the west coast of Sweden, the city proper has a population of 519,399, with 549,839 in the urban area and total of 937,015 inhabitants in the metropolitan area...
– August 19, 1808) was a Swedish shipbuilder, scientist and officer in the Swedish navy. He was also manager of the Karlskrona
Karlskrona
Karlskrona is a locality and the seat of Karlskrona Municipality, Blekinge County, Sweden with 35,212 inhabitants in 2010. It is also the capital of Blekinge County. Karlskrona is known as Sweden's only baroque city and is host to Sweden's only remaining naval base and the headquarters of the...
shipyard 1782-1793. Chapman is credited as the first person to apply scientific methods to shipbuilding and is considered to be the first naval architect
Naval architecture
Naval architecture is an engineering discipline dealing with the design, construction, maintenance and operation of marine vessels and structures. Naval architecture involves basic and applied research, design, development, design evaluation and calculations during all stages of the life of a...
.
Chapman was the author of Architectura Navalis Mercatoria (1768) and several other shipbuilding-related works. His Tractat om Skepps-Byggeriet ("Treatise on Shipbuilding") published in 1775 is a pioneering work in modern naval architecture. He was the first shipbuilder in Northern Europe to introduce prefabrication
Prefabrication
Prefabrication is the practice of assembling components of a structure in a factory or other manufacturing site, and transporting complete assemblies or sub-assemblies to the construction site where the structure is to be located...
in shipyards and managed to produce several series of ships in record time.
He was ennobled as "af Chapman" in 1772, after the successful coup of Swedish king Gustav III
Gustav III of Sweden
Gustav III was King of Sweden from 1771 until his death. He was the eldest son of King Adolph Frederick and Queen Louise Ulrica of Sweden, she a sister of Frederick the Great of Prussia....
.
Youth and early career
Chapman was born at Nya Varvet, the royal dockyards in Gothenburg, on 9 September 1721, the son of Thomas Chapman, an English naval officer (born 1679 in YorkshireYorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
) who had moved to Sweden in 1715 and joined the Swedish navy
Swedish Navy
The Royal Swedish Navy is the naval branch of the Swedish Armed Forces. It is composed of surface and submarine naval units – the Fleet – as well as marine units, the so-called Amphibious Corps .In Swedish, vessels of the Swedish Navy are given the prefix "HMS," short for Hans/Hennes...
in 1716. His mother was Susanna Colson, the daughter of London shipwright William Colson. He showed a talent for shipbuilding when he made his first body plan based on a drawing of an Ostende privateer given to him by Flemish shipwright. Chapman went to sea in 1736, at the age of fifteen, and spent his late teens working in both private and state shipyards. In 1741, he helped build a Spanish merchant vessel, a project that provided him with enough money to allow him to work as a ship's carpenter in London 1741-44. After his stay in England, he returned to Gothenburg and established a shipyard with a Swedish merchant named Bagge. Together they built a few small vessels and provided maintenance work for the Swedish East India Company
Swedish East India Company
The Swedish East India Company was founded in Gothenburg, Sweden, in 1731 for the purpose of conducting trade with the Far East...
.
Education
Though he had a received a good basic education in shipbuilding, Chapman recognized that he did not possess the knowledge of higher mathematics that was required to determine draft and stability at the design stage of a vessel. In 1748, he sold his share of the shipyard and moved to Stockholm where he studied for two years under Baron Palmqvist. He went on to study under the English professor of mathematics, Thomas SimpsonThomas Simpson
Thomas Simpson FRS was a British mathematician, inventor and eponym of Simpson's rule to approximate definite integrals...
, who had worked out methods for calculating the volume of irregular surfaces and bodies. After one year of studies in London, he went on to study shipbuilding at the British royal dockyards in Woolwich
Woolwich
Woolwich is a district in south London, England, located in the London Borough of Greenwich. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.Woolwich formed part of Kent until 1889 when the County of London was created...
, Chatham
Chatham Dockyard
Chatham Dockyard, located on the River Medway and of which two-thirds is in Gillingham and one third in Chatham, Kent, England, came into existence at the time when, following the Reformation, relations with the Catholic countries of Europe had worsened, leading to a requirement for additional...
and Deptford
Deptford
Deptford is a district of south London, England, located on the south bank of the River Thames. It is named after a ford of the River Ravensbourne, and from the mid 16th century to the late 19th was home to Deptford Dockyard, the first of the Royal Navy Dockyards.Deptford and the docks are...
.
Chapman recorded his extensive research of British shipbuilding in several documents, including an 8-page handwritten document titled Directions for Building of a Ship of 50 Guns, where he described construction methods as well as the British method of launching ships. His activities attracted the interests of the British naval authorities and upon leaving Deptfort in 1753, he was arrested, his papers confiscated and was then charged with trying to lure shipyards workers into French service. France and Great Britain were at the time bitter rivals, and both Sweden and Denmark were active in uncovering British manufacturing methods as well as trying to persuade British shipwrights into their service. Chapman was kept under house arrest for about one month at the cost of half a guinea
Guinea (British coin)
The guinea is a coin that was minted in the Kingdom of England and later in the Kingdom of Great Britain and the United Kingdom between 1663 and 1813...
per day, though still allowed to visit London with an escort. All of his documents were returned to him except a rigging plan. After his release, he stayed a few months to study experimental physics and took lessons in engraving
Engraving
Engraving is the practice of incising a design on to a hard, usually flat surface, by cutting grooves into it. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or glass are engraved, or may provide an intaglio printing plate, of copper or another metal, for printing...
.
In 1754, Chapman continued his educational tour by going to the Netherlands and in 1755 to France, where he was given permission to stay at the royal shipyards at Brest
Brest, France
Brest is a city in the Finistère department in Brittany in northwestern France. Located in a sheltered position not far from the western tip of the Breton peninsula, and the western extremity of metropolitan France, Brest is an important harbour and the second French military port after Toulon...
to observe warship construction. There he observed the complete process of construction of the French 60-gun ship Célèbre from keel-laying to rigging under the French shipwright Geoffrey the Elder. He also made line drawings and plans of several French ships, including the huge Ville de Paris
French ship Ville de Paris (1764)
The Ville de Paris was a large three-decker French ship of the line that became famous as the flagship of the Comte de Grasse during the American Revolutionary War....
and the 64-gun Bienfaisant and pen and ink drawings of ship decorations. The experience in Brest is believed to have made a deep impression on Chapman, later contributing to his conviction that 60-gun ships were the most appropriate for Swedish service.
The French authorities were the first to recognize Chapman's skills and attempted to convince him to stay and enter service for France, an offer he declined. After Chapman returned to London in 1756, the First Lord of the Admiralty tried to do the same, and came close to succeeding by using patriotic appeals to Chapman's British heritage. In his memoirs, Chapman wrote that he would likely have stayed had the current First Lord not lost his office soon after their meeting. Instead, he was recruited by the Swedish minister in Paris, Ulrik Scheffer, later Minister of External Affairs under Gustav III.
In Swedish service
In 1757, Chapman was made assistant shipwright at the royal dockyards in KarlskronaKarlskrona
Karlskrona is a locality and the seat of Karlskrona Municipality, Blekinge County, Sweden with 35,212 inhabitants in 2010. It is also the capital of Blekinge County. Karlskrona is known as Sweden's only baroque city and is host to Sweden's only remaining naval base and the headquarters of the...
at the age of 36. Soon after his appointment, he drafted his ideal plans for docks, which included facilities for properly ventilated sail storage and advanced dock pumps that could be powered by human power, horses or wind mills. The plans would, however, not be realized until much later, when Chapman was made chief shipwright of the Karlskrona yards.
In November 1758 to April of 1759, he was charged with a timber inspection cruise along the coasts from Turku
Turku
Turku is a city situated on the southwest coast of Finland at the mouth of the Aura River. It is located in the region of Finland Proper. It is believed that Turku came into existence during the end of the 13th century which makes it the oldest city in Finland...
up to the Gulf of Bothnia
Gulf of Bothnia
The Gulf of Bothnia is the northernmost arm of the Baltic Sea. It is situated between Finland's west coast and Sweden's east coast. In the south of the gulf lie the Åland Islands, between the Sea of Åland and the Archipelago Sea.-Name:...
. Later, Chapman moved first to Stralsund
Stralsund
- Main sights :* The Brick Gothic historic centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.* The heart of the old town is the Old Market Square , with the Gothic Town Hall . Behind the town hall stands the imposing Nikolaikirche , built in 1270-1360...
(then a Swedish possession) where he stayed until 1762, and later to Sveaborg where he stayed until 1764. His first major assignment came in 1760. The recently-formed archipelago fleet
Archipelago fleet
The archipelago fleet , officially the fleet of the army , was a branch of the armed services of Sweden between 1756 and 1823. Its purpose was to protect the coasts of Sweden, which was surrounded by a natural barrier of archipelagoes...
(skärgårdsflottan), an inshore fleet independent of the navy under the command of the army, was in need of new vessels to replace the galleys which had proved problematic in the war against Prussia that had broken out in 1757. The commander of the archipelago fleet Augustin Ehrensvärd
Augustin Ehrensvärd
Field marshal count Augustin Ehrensvärd was a Swedish military officer, military architect, artist, creator of the Sveaborg fortress and the Swedish Archipelago fleet,...
and the man in charge of the construction of the new naval base and fortress of Sveaborg began a successful collaboration with Chapman in designing new types of what would later be called "archipelago frigates" (skärgårdsfregatter). Inspired by Russian "chebecks" (variants of Mediterranean xebec
Xebec
A xebec , also spelled zebec, was a Mediterranean sailing ship that was used mostly for trading. It would have a long overhanging bowsprit and protruding mizzen mast...
s, hybrid sailing ships that incorporated features of galleys), the two created craft that could be rowed, but with heavier armament and additional protection for the crew, a necessity in the cold Baltic climate. The cooperation resulted in four new types of archipelago frigates: udema
Udema
An udema was a type of warship built for the Swedish archipelago fleet in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It was developed for warfare in the Archipelago Sea and along the coasts of Svealand and Finland against the Russian navy...
s, pojama, turuma
Turuma
A turuma was a type of warship built for the Swedish archipelago fleet in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It was developed for warfare in the Archipelago Sea and along the coasts of Svealand and Finland against the Russian navy...
and hemmema
Hemmema
A hemmema was a type of warship built for the Swedish archipelago fleet in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It was developed for warfare in the Archipelago Sea and along the coasts of Svealand and Finland against the Russian navy...
, all named after the Finnish names of Swedish provinces in Finland, the coasts of which they were intended to protect.
By closely examining drawings of ships with known good sailing qualities Chapman realized that the framework should be divided in a certain progression. The frames should decrease from the place of greatest width in the same relation as the ordinates 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 etc (pictured), where the arc ABC is a parabola, AD is the axis and A is the vertex
Vertex (geometry)
In geometry, a vertex is a special kind of point that describes the corners or intersections of geometric shapes.-Of an angle:...
(the "peak"). This construction method is called the "parabola method". Chapman also introduced the so called "relaxation method", but preferred the former himself.
At Sveaborg, Chapman supervised and led the construction and expansion of the naval yards, including cranes, docks and various buildings. He moved to Stockholm in 1764, but remained in charge of the design of vessels for the archipelago fleet. He was also made a part of a commission that was to propose improvements on the expansion of the high seas navy. Its final report was presented in 1764 and recommended new designs for standardized ships of the line
Ship of the line
A ship of the line was a type of naval warship constructed from the 17th through the mid-19th century to take part in the naval tactic known as the line of battle, in which two columns of opposing warships would manoeuvre to bring the greatest weight of broadside guns to bear...
varying from 50 to 70 guns. The report represented the ideals of a new school of shipwrights that favored scientific methods and the use of theoretical models at early stages in ship design, a view that was in conflict with the old school of shipbuilding which favored slow evolution based on practical experimentation. The old school, represented most prominently by Gilbert Sheldon, came into conflict with the new ideas, but lost the debate when the Board of the Admiralty favored the findings of the commission at the Riksdag
Parliament of Sweden
The Riksdag is the national legislative assembly of Sweden. The riksdag is a unicameral assembly with 349 members , who are elected on a proportional basis to serve fixed terms of four years...
in March 1769 and put Chapman in charge of designing the navy's new warships.
Djurgården yard
Chapman acquired a share in a shipyard at Djurgården in Stockholm in 1768. A conglomerate of the Åkers gun foundry and owners of the Swedish East India CompanySwedish East India Company
The Swedish East India Company was founded in Gothenburg, Sweden, in 1731 for the purpose of conducting trade with the Far East...
provided the capital while Chapman would contribute his technical skills and experience with shipbuilding. The same year he moved in to a newly built house in Djurgården with his nephew Larg Bogeman and Elisabeth Lindborg, his former housekeeper with whom he had a daughter and son. Chapman constructed a new type of saw mill for the Djurgården yard that replaced the traditional "saw pit" with a circular blade at the center of an octagonal building. A system of chains and pulleys would pull lumber toward the saw, which could receive them from eight different directions.
The Djurgården yard produced several of Chapman's own designs that were successful, including cats, barque
Barque
A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing vessel with three or more masts.- History of the term :The word barque appears to have come from the Greek word baris, a term for an Egyptian boat. This entered Latin as barca, which gave rise to the Italian barca, Spanish barco, and the French barge and...
s and East Indiamen
East Indiamen
An East Indiaman was a ship operating under charter or license to any of the East India Companies of the major European trading powers of the 17th through the 19th centuries...
in 1767-79. Some of the latter were named in honor of King Gustav and were launched in the presence of the royal family. This included praise from Carl Michael Bellman
Carl Michael Bellman
was a Swedish poet and composer. Bellman is a central figure in the Swedish song tradition and remains a very important influence in Swedish music, as well as in Scandinavian literature in general, to this day....
, one of Sweden's most popular composers and at the time a favorite of the court. The yard constructed merchant vessels as well as warships on contract from the military. During Chapman's time at the yard, over 50 vessels of various sizes were constructed, including the first so-called archipelago frigates, the udema
Udema
An udema was a type of warship built for the Swedish archipelago fleet in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It was developed for warfare in the Archipelago Sea and along the coasts of Svealand and Finland against the Russian navy...
s, pojamas and turuma
Turuma
A turuma was a type of warship built for the Swedish archipelago fleet in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It was developed for warfare in the Archipelago Sea and along the coasts of Svealand and Finland against the Russian navy...
s.
The "royal revolution"
In 1772, king Gustav III accomplished what was described as a "royal revolution". Since the death of Charles XIICharles XII of Sweden
Charles XII also Carl of Sweden, , Latinized to Carolus Rex, Turkish: Demirbaş Şarl, also known as Charles the Habitué was the King of the Swedish Empire from 1697 to 1718...
in 1718 and Sweden's reduction to the status of a minor power, the country's politics had been dominated by the Riksdag, the Swedish parliament, with frequent intervention by Russia, Great Britain, France and Denmark through bribes and subsidies. Gustav's palace coup established him as a self-defined enlightened despot while curbing the influence of nobility, which had become unpopular through rampant corruption and political intrigues. Inspired by the absolute monarchy
Absolute monarchy
Absolute monarchy is a monarchical form of government in which the monarch exercises ultimate governing authority as head of state and head of government, his or her power not being limited by a constitution or by the law. An absolute monarch thus wields unrestricted political power over the...
of France, Gustav took great inspiration from the "Sun King" Louis XIV (1638–1715) and allied himself with his successor Louis XV.
Chapman supported the king's boldness and even gave concrete assistance by warehousing ammunition for troops that were loyal to the king. The maneuver paid off since Gustav supported an expansion of both army and navy and singled out Russia as the primary enemy of Swedish interests. The alliance with Louis XV meant that large French subsidies were sent to expand the Swedish military against the common Russian enemy. This provided the funds to finance Chapman's plans to expand the navy with 60- to 70-gun warships of his own design.
Navy expansion
In 1776, Chapman became a civilian member of the Board of the Admiralty. His influence on the board and favor with the king resulted in critical reports of the current habit of the high seas navy to keep old ships afloat at great expense rather than spending more resources on building new, improved ships. Chapman's recommendations for improvements of the Karlskrona facilities was also received positively and approved by the king. The same year he was elected into the Royal Swedish Academy of SciencesRoyal Swedish Academy of Sciences
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences or Kungliga Vetenskapsakademien is one of the Royal Academies of Sweden. The Academy is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization which acts to promote the sciences, primarily the natural sciences and mathematics.The Academy was founded on 2...
as member number 175.
An expansion of the navy was seen as necessary, but the design of the new ships was still a matter of debate in the late 1770s. The old school of shipwrights, most prominently supported by the Sheldon family and senior navy officers like Admiral Carl Tersmeden
Carl Tersmeden
Carl Tersmeden was a Swedish admiral and diarist.-Life:Carl Tersmeden was the son of Jacob Tersmeden the Elder and Elisabeth Gangia and thus the younger brother of Jacob Tersmeden the Younger...
in Karlskrona, favored the old design with only minimal alterations based on the older methods of empirically-grounded ship design. The new school, based in Stockholm and Sveaborg had in Chapman its most capable representative and was supported by General Admiral Henrik af Trolle
Henrik af Trolle
Henrik af Trolle was a Swedish naval officer and commander of the Swedish archipelago fleet. He was ennobled in 1772...
and the court, pushed for more radical changes and designs based on the theoretical designs and experimental physics and mathematics. Chapman's first proposal for a new standard for ships of the line was the Wasa, completed in 1778. Its superstructures were lowered considerably by removing the poop deck
Poop deck
In naval architecture, a poop deck is a deck that forms the roof of a cabin built in the rear, or "aft", part of the superstructure of a ship.The name originates from the French word for stern, la poupe, from Latin puppis...
almost entirely to add stiffness
Stiffness
Stiffness is the resistance of an elastic body to deformation by an applied force along a given degree of freedom when a set of loading points and boundary conditions are prescribed on the elastic body.-Calculations:...
and the gun decks were placed higher than in older designs to allow them to be used even in rough weather, when the ship rolled.
The Wasa went through sea trials in 1779 where it was compared with Sofia Magdalena, a ship of the older design which was favored by the conservative factions within the establishment. The Wasa to some degree outperformed Sofia Magdalena, but never completely outclassed it. The opposition took advantage while Chapman was convinced he needed to make only minimal adjustments to his design to produce a vastly superior warship. The portrayal of the conflict as conservative reactionaries versus progressive pioneers is shared by several historical authors, including Daniel G. Harris
Daniel Gibson Harris
Daniel Gibson Harris was an accountant, a British agent during World War II and a writer on Swedish naval history.He was born in Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire, England and, after attending Sherborne School, trained as a chartered accountant...
, Chapman's modern biographer. This includes descriptions of action approaching sabotage in providing substandard rigging material for the Wasa and outright insubordination on the part of Gilbert Sheldon by making the hull 60 cm (2 ft) shorter than planned. Swedish Jan Glete
Jan Glete
Jan Glete was a Swedish historian. He was professor of history at the Stockholm University, specializing in 20th century Swedish industry and banking as well as the connection between state formation and naval history in early modern Europe.-Academic career:Glete spent his entire academic career...
has argued this description is partial to Chapman and his supporters and stressed the political nature of the conflict; Chapman and af Trolle were both close to the royal circles and their aims coincided with those of king Gustav III, who wished to assert control of the armed forces and to portray himself as an enlightened monarch who encouraged innovation against the conservative navy establishment in Karlskrona.
Chapman also worked out several improvements of the royal shipyards that he supervised, including recommendations for the use of sheds to protect ships from deterioration when they were in reserve, something that was particularly important for the often lightly built galleys. Showing considerable organization skills, he made detailed plans on how to make naval vessels ready for quick mobilization and proposed a more efficient system of management for shipyards based on his experiences in Sweden and abroad.
Requested by king Gustav III
Gustav III of Sweden
Gustav III was King of Sweden from 1771 until his death. He was the eldest son of King Adolph Frederick and Queen Louise Ulrica of Sweden, she a sister of Frederick the Great of Prussia....
to comment on Patrik Miller's warship Experiment (which Miller had sent to the king) he called it the "English (sic) sea-spook". The king sent Chapman a snuff box filled with rutabaga
Rutabaga
The rutabaga, swede , turnip or yellow turnip is a root vegetable that originated as a cross between the cabbage and the turnip; see Triangle of U...
seeds. The snuff box, illustrated with marine motifs, including Experiment, is now in the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.
At the age of 60, he was appointed head of the naval shipyard at the main naval base of Karlskrona
Karlskrona
Karlskrona is a locality and the seat of Karlskrona Municipality, Blekinge County, Sweden with 35,212 inhabitants in 2010. It is also the capital of Blekinge County. Karlskrona is known as Sweden's only baroque city and is host to Sweden's only remaining naval base and the headquarters of the...
. Here, he built new ships and organized production series for ships based on prefabrication
Prefabrication
Prefabrication is the practice of assembling components of a structure in a factory or other manufacturing site, and transporting complete assemblies or sub-assemblies to the construction site where the structure is to be located...
methods, which meant that he could deliver twenty new ships in just three years, ten ships-of-the-line
Ship of the line
A ship of the line was a type of naval warship constructed from the 17th through the mid-19th century to take part in the naval tactic known as the line of battle, in which two columns of opposing warships would manoeuvre to bring the greatest weight of broadside guns to bear...
and ten frigate
Frigate
A frigate is any of several types of warship, the term having been used for ships of various sizes and roles over the last few centuries.In the 17th century, the term was used for any warship built for speed and maneuverability, the description often used being "frigate-built"...
s. Chapman also became a pioneer in the application of mathematical calculations in the relation between between rigging, displacement
Displacement (ship)
A ship's displacement is its weight at any given time, generally expressed in metric tons or long tons. The term is often used to mean the ship's weight when it is loaded to its maximum capacity. A number of synonymous terms exist for this maximum weight, such as loaded displacement, full load...
, water resistance, the center of gravity of hulls, stability and tonnage.
In order to test his mathematical theories, he had a 100 m long pool constructed outside Karlskrona, where he tested various hull designs with scale models. The models were pulled through the water with pulleys and ropes. This method gave realistic values and is similar to the method used today to establish the hydrodynamic features of new hull designs.
Architectura Navalis Mercatoria
In 1765 Chapman applied for permission from his work as a chief naval builder for the Archipelago Fleet at the naval base at Sveaborg to work on Architectura Navalis Mercatoria, a collection of contemporary ship types that he considered to be the best and most interesting. The work had been commissioned by Duke CharlesCharles XIII of Sweden
Charles XIII & II also Carl, , was King of Sweden from 1809 and King of Norway from 1814 until his death...
, the brother of king Gustav and was published in 1768. The book contained 62 illustrations of ships and smaller vessels, both Swedish and foreign designs. Some of these were Chapman's own designs, but many were also types that he had seen during visits to foreign countries. Everything from large warships to small fishing vessels were represented.
The book was intended for an international audience and the text was available in Swedish, French and English. All measurements were given in Swedish, French and English feet. However, it took seven years to finish the accompanying explanatory texts. The charts and the following Tractat om Skepps-byggeriet ("Treatise on shipbuilding") in 1775 launched Chapman as one of the leading experts on ship building in the world.
Ships designed by af Chapman
- AmphionSwedish AmphionThe Amphion was the personal pleasure craft of king Gustav III of Sweden. It was designed by Fredrik Henrik af Chapman, a famous 18th century Swedish ship engineer, built at Djurgårdsvarvet in Stockholm in the summer of 1778, and launched the same year. Amphion, named after Zeus' son and culture...
- Jacobstads WapenJacobstads WapenThe Jacobstads Wapen is a modern replica of an 18th century galeas built in Jakobstad, Finland between 1988-1994. She is built according to blueprints by the Swedish warship architect Fredrik Henrik af Chapman dating from 1755, the oldest vessel blueprints found in Finland. She is classified by...
- Vasaorden
- Galten
- Delfinen
- Wasa
- Dristigheten
- Konung Gustaf III
- ÄranAran- Places :* The Aran Islands across the mouth of Galway Bay, Ireland or the largest island in that group** The Irish Earls of Arran take their title from the Aran Islands* Aran Fawddwy, a mountain in north Wales* Aran , in France...
- Konung Adolf Fredrik
- Försiktigheten
- Kronprins Gustaf Adolf
- Fäderneslandet
- VenusSwedish frigate Venus (1783)Venus was a Swedish frigate, designed by Fredrik Henrik af Chapman. Venus was conquered by the Russians in 1789 in Oslofjord.Venus was launched on 19 July 1783 in Karskrona. In 1786 she sailed to Gothenburg where she was to be subordinated the local naval station, which was commanded by Adolf Ulrik...
- Bellona-class frigates
- hemmemaHemmemaA hemmema was a type of warship built for the Swedish archipelago fleet in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It was developed for warfare in the Archipelago Sea and along the coasts of Svealand and Finland against the Russian navy...
- pojama
- turumaTurumaA turuma was a type of warship built for the Swedish archipelago fleet in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It was developed for warfare in the Archipelago Sea and along the coasts of Svealand and Finland against the Russian navy...
- udemaUdemaAn udema was a type of warship built for the Swedish archipelago fleet in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It was developed for warfare in the Archipelago Sea and along the coasts of Svealand and Finland against the Russian navy...