Naval architecture saved the United States at its birth

Abstract

ABSTRACT Naval architecture was developed by European sailing navies (mostly France and Spain) as a force multiplier against Britain. It became the basis for the design of the combined French-Spanish Bourbon Armada, which fought the British Navy around the globe, outnumbering and overwhelming it during the War of American Independence. Coppering, which reduced resistance, was one of the most important naval technologies developed during the war. The French frigate Concorde, designed with most advanced naval architecture theory of the era and fully coppered, carried the key dispatches that enabled French and American forces to coordinate and converge at Yorktown in 1781. All of these actions, taken together, forced Britain to sue for peace, resulting in an independent United States of America.