Howard I. (Howard Irving) Chapelle

Howard I. (Howard Irving) Chapelle
Howard Irving Chapelle (1901–1975) was a renowned American naval architect and maritime historian. He is best known for his extensive research on the design and construction of American sailing vessels from the 18th and 19th centuries. His most famous works include "American Sailing Ships" and "The History of American Sailing Ships," which are considered authoritative references in the field. Chapelle also served as curator of maritime history at the Smithsonian Institution, where he greatly contributed to the preservation and study of historic ship designs.

Author's Books:


For a commercial boat to gain widespread popularity and use, it must be suited to a variety of weather and water conditions and must have some very marked economic advantages over any other boats that might be used in the same occupation. Although there were more than 200 distinct types of small sailing craft employed in North American fisheries and in along-shore occupations during the last 60 years... more...

The Pioneer SteamshipSAVANNAH: A Study for a Scale Model The original plans of the pioneer transatlantic steamer Savannah no longer exist, and many popular representations of the famous vessel have been based on a 70-year-old model in the United States National Museum. This model, however, differs in several important respects from contemporary illustrations. To correct these apparent inaccuracies in a... more...

FULTON’S“STEAM BATTERY”:BLOCKSHIP and CATAMARAN Robert Fulton’s “Steam Battery,” a catamaran-type blockship, was built during the War of 1812. Until recently, not enough material has been available to permit a reasonably accurate reconstruction of what is generally acknowledged to be the first steam man-of-war. With the discovery, in the Danish Royal Archives at Copenhagen, of plans of this... more...