Publisher's Synopsis
"Many stirring words have been written about the heroic deeds of the officers and the men of the U.S Navy before, during and after the Civil War. But very little has been published about the naval constructors who built the warships that made their exploits possible. Of all of the Navy's constructors of this era, none had more impact than John Lenthall. A native of Washington D.C and the son of an ambitious English artisan, John Lenthall designed the early steamer Susquehanna and the large Merrimack class steam frigates, also working on the construction of Princeton, the world's first war steamer designed with a screw propeller. His stellar rise through the ranks of U.S. naval constructors soon led to his appointment as the chief of the Bureau of Construction and Repair, the highest-ranking naval architect. Bred to the intricacies of Washington's bureaucracy, John Lenthall was a survivor and continued on as bureau chief throughout the u
