John Harper Narbeth, CB, CBE, MVO (26 May 1863 – 19 May 1944) was a British naval architect of the Royal Corps of Naval Constructors, the body responsible for the design of Royal Navy warships. The design of the dreadnought battleships has been attributed to him, and he played a leading part in the design and construction of the first generation of aircraft carriers.
Background and early career Born at Pembroke Dock on 26 May 1863,Who’s Who 1931, A. & C. Black, London, 1931, p. 2316. he was one of the nine children of John Harper Narbeth (himself the son of another of that name) and his wife Ann Griffiths. The father, described as “a man of sterling worth of character and intellectual acumen”, was a cost accountant in Pembroke Royal Dockyard,Pembroke County Guardian and Cardigan Reporter, 25 October 1907, p. 8. and in 1877 the son followed him into that establishment as an apprentice shipwright. The yard had just been assessed by the United States Navy’s Chief Constructor to be “the finest shipbuilding yard in the world”,Brian John, Pembrokeshire, Pan Books Ltd, London, 1978, p. 96. and during his apprenticeship the younger Narbeth gained experience on a variety of vessels including the training brig Nautilus, one of the last wooden vessels commissioned for the Royal Navy.
He obtained the highest marks in his year’s passing-out examination and was placed second in the national competition for advanced training at Greenwich Royal Naval College.Journal of Commerce and Shipping Telegraph, Liverpool, Shipbuilding and Engineering Edition, 12 July 1923, p. 3; Pembroke County Guardian and Cardigan Reporter, 25 October 1907, p. 8. On completing three years at Greenwich as a Student in Naval Architecture, he entered the Royal Corps of Naval Constructors and was appointed an Assistant Constructor (Third Class) at Portsmouth, being the first man ever to move directly to that grade on leaving the College.Pembroke County Guardian and Cardigan Reporter, 25 October 1907, p. 8; Portsmouth Evening News, 18 October 1886, p. 2; Hampshire Telegraph, 10 August 1923, p. 10. At Portsmouth he was involved in building the first-class battleships Camperdown and Trafalgar and temporarily served as Dockyard Schoolmaster.Journal of Commerce and Shipping Telegraph, Liverpool, Shipbuilding and Engineering Edition, 12 July 1923, p. 3.
Admiralty employment 1888 to 1907 Transferred to the Admiralty in 1888, he joined the staff of Sir William White, the Director of Naval Construction, and after assignments of a varied nature was soon entrusted with “the work at which he became supremely adept – the preparation of warship designs”.Transactions of the Institution of Naval Architects, Vol. 86 (1944), p. 246.
He took a leading part in the design of the Apollo class of cruisers, and the methods of calculation and tabulation devised by him so impressed White that orders were issued for these to be followed in all future designs. Directed by White to investigate the considerable discrepancy between the design and completion weights of warships during the later 1880s, his recommendations resulted in battleships of the Majestic class being completed within the limits of their design weights. He served as White’s professional secretary from 1894 to 1897 and assisted in revising his Manual of Naval Architecture.Journal of Commerce and Shipping Telegraph, Liverpool, Shipbuilding and Engineering Edition, 12 July 1923, p. 3.
He was Secretary of the Committee on Sheathing Her Majesty’s Ships in 1892 and, in the following year, of the Admiralty working-party that reported to Parliament on the sinking of HMS Victoria.Army & Navy Gazette, 18 June 1892, p. 6; Pembroke County Guardian and Cardigan Reporter, 25 October 1907, p. 8. Elected a member of the Royal Institution of Naval Architects in 1896, he was advanced to the rank of Assistant Constructor (First Class) in the following year.Journal of Commerce and Shipping Telegraph, Liverpool, Shipbuilding and Engineering Edition, 12 July 1923, p. 3. In 1900 he successfully directed the stabilisation of the royal yacht Victoria and Albert after it heeled over while being undocked.
In 1901, while in Hyde Park to watch the procession of the State Funeral of Queen Victoria, he was caught in a forward rush of spectators and impaled on railings; his injuries were life-threatening and he was fortunate to be operated on immediately at St George’s Hospital (then adjacent to the Park).Pembroke County Guardian and Cardigan Reporter, 25 October 1907, p. 8. He made a good recovery and was promoted to Constructor in 1901.Who’s Who 1931, A. & C. Black Limited, London, 1931, p. 2316.
He took a leading role in the design of the Edward VII class of battleships during Sir William White’s ill health, and was also associated with the design of the Lord Nelson class,Journal of Commerce and Shipping Telegraph, Liverpool, Shipbuilding and Engineering Edition, 12 July 1923, p. 3. but both these classes were effectively rendered obsolete in 1904 when the newly-appointed First Sea Lord, Admiral Fisher, persuaded the Admiralty Board that the British navy should be equipped with fast all-big-gun warships. Under Fisher’s chairmanship, a “Committee on Designs” was appointed to elaborate and advance this objective.Norman Friedman, The British Battleship 1906-1946, Seaforth Publishing, Barnsley, 2015, pp. 77-80; Henry S. Morgan, The Fisher Revolution, Reform in the Royal Navy, 1890-1910; Early Naval Management in Action, Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment for the degree of Master of Science in Management, United States Naval Postgraduate School, Moneterey, California, 1964, pp. 84-86.
The distinguishing features of the type of battleship favoured by Fisher had been suggested in 1903 by Vittorio Cuniberti, Chief Constructor of the Italian Navy,Cuniberti’s suggestion appeared as “An Ideal Battleship for the British Fleet” in All the World’s Fighting Ships, 1903 (ed. Fred T. Jane), Sampson Low & Company, London, 1903, pp. 22-26, 407-409. and in September of that year Narbeth had put forward a similar proposal as an alternative to designs being developed by others at the Admiralty, but his proposal for an armament of twelve 12-inch guns arranged in six turrets was then regarded as too innovative.John Brooks, “Dreadnought: Blunder or Stroke of Genius?”, War in History, Vol. 14, No. 2 (April 2007), Sage Publications Ltd., pp. 151-178 at p. 161. Brooks adds (n.19) that Narbeth’s memorandum and sketch survive at the front of the ship’s cover for Dreadnought at the National Maritime Museum.
Two years later, in tandem with endorsing the need for a battleship of the type favoured by Fisher, the Committee on Designs supported its chairman’s proposal for development of a new fast cruiser armed with heavy guns. In response, Narbeth prepared design sketches for both a battleship with a speed of 21-knots and a cruiser of 25-knots, each mounting all 12-inch guns. His designs were regarded as unacceptably radical by Sir Philip Watts, who had succeeded William White as Director of Naval Construction, and for some time Watts resisted their presentation to the Committee. When eventually tabled, they were vigorously supported by Fisher and became the basis for, respectively, the Dreadnought-class battleship and the Invincible-class battlecruiser.R. A. Burt, British Battleships of World War One, Seaforth Publishing, Barnsley, 2012, pp. 23, 42-43; Steve Backer, British Battlecruisers of the Second World War, Seaforth Publishing, Barnsley, 2013, p. 2. The Admiralty Board approved the outline designs for the vessels on 17 March and the detailed designs, as worked out by Narbeth, on 7 July 1905.Jon Tetsuro Sumida, In Defence of Naval Supremacy: Finance, Technology and British Naval Policy, 1889-1914, Unwin Hyman, Boston, 1989, p. 58.
“Creator of the Dreadnought” The design for HMS Dreadnought and the novel features it embodied, particularly propulsion by steam turbines (then still at an experimental stage), presented many difficulties which Narbeth was considered to have “surmounted with complete success”.Transactions of the Institution of Naval Architects, Vol. 86 (1944), p. 246. Unprecedented methods were employed in building the ship, and Narbeth was sent to Portsmouth to provide advice as construction proceeded.Pembroke County Guardian and Cardigan Reporter, 25 October 1907, p. 8. During the work he devised numerous improvements, and twenty-five alternative designs were produced for consideration by the Admiralty Board before the next battleship of this class was ordered.Western Morning News, 6 April 1922, p. 4.
Laid down on 2 October 1905, Dreadnought was launched by Edward VII on 10 February 1906 and was complete and ready for trials one year and one day after work had begun.Richard Hough, A History of the Modern Battleship, Dreadnought, Michael Joseph Ltd., 1965; as republished by Periscope Publishing Ltd., Penzance, 2003, p. 22. The launch was accompanied by an investiture at which the King decorated several naval officers with senior honours of the Royal Victorian Order and, among the lesser awards, appointed Narbeth an MVO (Fourth Class).Morning Post, 12 February 1906, p. 7.
The creation of Dreadnought revolutionised warship construction, set the battleship design standard for the next forty years,Kyle Mizokami, “A Brief History of All the Warships Called Dreadnought”, Popular Mechanics, Hearst Digital Media, New York, 26 October 2016. and gave Britain “a head-start in a new round of the arms race”.Marc Drolet, The Anatomy of the British Battle Cruiser and British Naval Policy, Thesis for degree of Master of Arts in History, McGill University, Montreal, November 1993, p. 42. In 1906 Narbeth received the formal thanks of the Board of Admiralty for his share in production of the vessel,Who’s Who 1931, A. & C. Black Limited, London, 1931, p. 2316. but his leading role in its development did not become public knowledge until revealed by the British Weekly in October 1907.Hampshire Telegraph, 12 October 1907, p. 7. The revelation, which also named him as designer of the Edward VII and Lord Nelson battleships, sparked press complaints that he had not been properly rewarded for his work; there were calls for his achievements to be “more fittingly recognised than by the empty honour of the MVO” and for him to be promoted to the rank of Chief Constructor.Portsmouth Evening News, 10 October 1907, p. 4; Pembroke County Guardian and Cardigan Reporter, 25 October 1907, p. 8.
More recently it has been suggested that his reputation as designer of Dreadnought (the accolade which became commonplace and was to caption his obituaries),“Designer of the Dreadnought” was the header of his obituary in The Times of 23 May 1944 while the New York Times of the same date honoured him as “Creator of Dreadnought”. should be treated with caution because his relatively junior position in the Admiralty’s hierarchy necessitated his work being subject to review and instruction by successive levels of more senior officials.See David K. Brown, Warrior to Dreadnought: Warship Design and Development, 1860-1905, Pen & Sword Books, Barnsley, 2010, p. 137, Chapter 11 (“Dreadnought, a Ship whose Time had Come”). However, the force of Narbeth’s personality may have been a critical factor in driving his proposals forward: he was remembered as fearless in confronting authority and completely stubborn when believing that he was right.L. Woollard; Marc Brodie (rev.), “Narbeth, John Harper (1862-1944)”, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 23 September 2004. Lloyd Woollard, RCNC, knew Narbeth well and in 1932 paid personal tribute to the important ventilation improvements he had introduced into the British fleet: Journal of Commerce and Shipping Telegraph, Liverpool, Shipbuilding and Engineering Edition, 31 March 1932, p. 3.
Admiralty service 1907 to 1914