William Francis Gibbs

William Francis Gibbs was an American naval architect who began his career as an attorney before becoming one of the most influential ship designers of the twentieth century. In 1922 he and his brother Frederic founded the naval architecture firm that became Gibbs and Cox, which by the Second World War had produced the working plans or designs for 63 percent of all merchant ships over 2,000 tons and 74 percent of all American naval vessels built during the war. His most celebrated design was the ocean liner SS United States, which entered service in 1952 as an unusually lightweight, fire-resistant vessel built to his exacting safety standards, and which won the transatlantic speed record, the Blue Riband, on its maiden voyage by averaging 35.59 knots, a record that stood for decades. He received the Franklin Medal in 1953 and was the first recipient of the Elmer A. Sperry Award in 1955, and his innovations in hull efficiency, fire prevention and structural design influenced naval architecture standards for decades afterward.