The systematic study of scientific naval architecture may be said only to have begun in Britain in 1811, in which year, as the outcome of recommendations made by a Government Commission appointed to inquire into naval construction in 1806, the first School of Naval Architecture was established at Portsmouth, under the direction of Dr Inman, a distinguished member of the University of Cambridge. All the great advances which had been made previously in the science of naval architecture were chiefly due to foreigners, and any one wishing to acquaint himself at first hand with all that was then most advanced would have to consult the learned treatises of such distinguished Frenchmen as Bouguer, Dupin, Euler, D’Alembert, and the Abbé Bossut, of the distinguished Spaniard Don Juan d’Ulloa, and of Chapman, the celebrated constructor of the Swedish Navy. One or two English writers, between 1750 and 1800, had published translations of some of these foreign treatises, but the only original work of any importance was by Atwood, who contributed a “Disquisition on the Stability of Ships” to the proceedings of the Royal Society (1796-98). This contribution was both a criticism and an extension of flotation and stability investigations by Bouguer, and as an example of scientific method applied to exact calculations of the qualities of ships it is still well worthy of study. In 1791 a “Society for the Improvement of Naval Architecture” had been formed, the membership being both numerous and influential, and in 1806 the growing sense of need for improved scientific methods culminated in the appointment of the Commission above mentioned, and in the establishment five years later of the first School of Naval Architecture. This institution existed for over twenty years, over forty students were trained, and the science of naval architecture was greatly promoted through its agency. Almost as a body the students of this school, with their able teacher, deserve the honour of being regarded as the founders of an English literature of naval architecture. Nevertheless, the recognition of Dr Inman’s services, and his pupils’ capabilities as designers, by the naval authorities was of a cold and disappointing nature. Ultimately, however, many of them attained positions wherein their talents found worthy exercise.