James McFadyen McNeill, 1892-1964

Abstract

The life and the career of James McFayden McNeill were dedicated to the design and construction of ships. In this field of complex technology, the basic scientific principles cannot be applied with exactness. Even if they were known with precision—which is far from being true— the storms and stresses of voyages not yet foreseen render any exact calculation of the consequences of such hazards to a ship’s structure a waste of effort. Those skilled in the art of this applied technology must possess as an additional and important aid to their scientific grounding a trained and balanced judgement. They can then interpret the experience of earlier practitioners and shape it to their own needs when they adventure into new fields of endeavour. Circumstances may well arise in which judgement is the ultimate guide to their decision in such cases. That sense of judgement, which other people acknowledged and trusted, coupled with a sense of purpose determined to achieve the perfection which his mind had conceived were characteristics which were recognized in James McNeill by all who knew him and by all those who worked with him. He was born on 19 August 1892, the son of Archibald McNeill who came from seafaring people on the Island of Islay and who was sixty years of age when James was born. His mother, Isabella McKinnon, was born on the Island of Arran and had spent all her life on the Island up to the time of her marriage. She came from farming stock but little is known of her early life on the Island.