Isherwood, B. F.

B. F. Isherwood, (born Oct. 6, 1822, New York City—died June 19, 1915, New York City), U.S. naval engineer who, during the American Civil War, greatly augmented the U.S. Navy’s steam-powered fleet.

The son of a physician, Isherwood attended Albany (N.Y.) Academy (1831–36) and then learned mechanics and engineering working successively on the Utica & Schenectady Railroad, on the Croton Aqueduct, on the Erie Railroad, at various U.S. Treasury lighthouses, and at the Novelty Iron Works (New York City). In 1844 he joined the Engineer Corps of the U.S. Navy, serving thereafter on several ships and land-based posts. After the American Civil War began, he became engineer in chief of the Navy and, in 1862, the first chief of its Bureau of Steam Engineering. At the beginning of the war the Navy had but 28 steam-powered ships and boats; by the end of the war it had about 600. Isherwood oversaw the design and construction of most of these ships and, in large part, personally designed the machinery and hulls of ships of the Wampanoag class, which, when built, were the world’s fastest at 17 ³/₄ knots.

During these years Isherwood wrote two major treatises on steam power for ships: Engineering Precedents for Steam Machinery, 2 vol. (1859), and Experimental Researches in Steam Engineering, 2 vol. (1863–65). The latter became a standard text and was translated into a number of foreign languages.

Isherwood remained on active duty until 1884, when he retired as chief engineer, the highest permanent rank in the Engineer Corps. Through his later years of duty he presided over many experimental researches involving both U.S. Navy ships and bases and foreign navies. After his death, the United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, named Isherwood Hall in his honour.