William Kennish

Who was William Kennish?

William Kennish, was a poet, engineer, explorer, scientist, inventor, and the first person hired by the United States government to explore a route for a Panama Canal.

He was born in the Parish of Maughold, on the Isle of Man, in a cottage on the Douglas-Ramsey Road. He spoke Manx, and knew very little English until he became a seaman in the Royal Navy at the age of 22. He learned English and rose to the rank of Master Carpenter by the time he was 27. In October 1826, he married Mary Byford, of Gillingham, Chatham, Kent, England.

Between 1827 and 1832, while in the service of the Royal Navy, he invented a system for correcting pointing naval artillery for parallax and a system for moving naval artillery on to land and using it there. He improved the design of the theodolite. He introduced the practice of painting naval vessels gray. In addition, he worked on an artificial horizon for navigation; a[n] Automatic sounding instrument; a method of drowning the magazine of a ship of war ; an hydraulic ventilator; [and] a hydrostatic diving machine[.]"