Henry Wimshurst

Who was Henry Wimshurst?

Henry Wimshurst was a 19th-century British shipbuilder.

Wimshurst was in business at Ratcliffe Cross Dock in east London. He is remembered primarily as the builder of Archimedes, the world's first propeller-driven steamship.

While Wimshurst cannot take credit for Archimedes' revolutionary propulsion system—which was the invention of Francis Pettit Smith—he was an "ardent supporter" of Smith and his technological breakthrough. He would later claim to have proposed an improved, two-bladed version of Smith's original propeller which was subsequently installed on the vessel.

After completing Archimedes in 1839, Wimshurst built a second screw-propelled steamship in 1840, Novelty, described as the world's first screw-propelled cargo ship and the first screw-propelled ship to make a commercial voyage.

Wimshurst himself had an inventive turn of mind, and filed a number of patents during the course of his career. In 1854, he built an experimental rotary steam engine, which when installed in a 300-ton screw-propelled ship, reportedly achieved an rpm of 45 and a top speed of 14 mph in tests conducted by the firm of Boulton & Watt.