William and Francis Warden at Lisbon's Royal Shipyard (1715–1761): English design on Portuguese naval architecture and shipbuilding

Abstract

This paper examines the work of two English shipbuilders, William and Francis Warden, who, at the behest of the Portuguese Crown, served as master shipwrights at the royal shipyards in Lisbon. Their contributions were pivotal in shaping the character of Portuguese shipbuilding and naval design during the first half of the eighteenth century, decades before similar developments would be seen in Spain, in what was referred to at the time as the ‘English manner’. Moreover, they played a key role in advancing the efforts aimed at the standardisation of a shipbuilding typology across the Atlantic in Brazil. Given that the activity of English shipbuilders abroad was not subject to the strict regulations of the Royal Navy Establishment's, this paper will both seek to define the new model introduced by the Warden and explore the extent to which the Portuguese Navy's pursuit of uniformity and efficiency was genuinely effective.