Thornycroft, Sir John Isaac

Sir John Isaac Thornycroft, (born Feb. 1, 1843, Rome, Papal States [Italy]—died June 28, 1928, Bembridge, Isle of Wight, Eng.), English naval architect and engineer who made fundamental improvements in the design and machinery of torpedo boats and built the first torpedo boat for the Royal Navy.

Soon after he established his launch-building and engineering works at Chiswick, London, in 1866, Thornycroft received the order for the first torpedo boat of the Royal Navy, HMS Lightning, which he completed in 1877. At the same time, he experimented with hull form and propeller design and patented a hull that could skim, rather than cut through, the water. He also designed water-tube boilers for torpedo boats as well as one of the earliest ship stabilizers. During World War I, he designed and built coastal torpedo speedboats (“scooters”), which could skim over minefields. He pioneered the use of oil fuel for the Royal Navy and was knighted in 1902.