Richard Lano Newman

Richard Lano Newman, son of R.L. and Anna J. (Penny) Newman, was born in 1864 at Weymouth, Dorsetshire, England. He was educated at Kimberly Grammer School, Falmouth, and at Berkbeck Institute, London. In 1881 he entered the office of John Penn & Son, Marine engineers of London, as a pupil.

Here he remained seven years, during the last two of which he was in the drawing office of the firm. At the end of this term, he entered the employ of the Earle Ship Building Company, Hull, England where he remained four years, for three and one-half of which he was chief draughts man, under the direction of A. E. Seaton. This engagement was followed by one of like duration with Maudsley, Son & Field, of Lambeth, London, England. During the time he was thus employed he was engaged on the designs of machinery for the Italian, Spanish, Brazilian, Chilian and British Men-of-war; in fact, in this time this company had under construction over 200,000 horse power of machinery. He then resigned this position to take up that of the managership of the British Yaryan Company, which he resigned in 1890, and came to the United States.

On the recommendation of Chief Engineer Ayers, who was then chief of the Brooklyn navy yard, and who had made the acquaintance of Edward Newman while on the China station (and who, for a number of years, was engineer-in-chief of the Portsmouth dock yard, England), he secured a position in the office of William Cramp & Sons, and in about six months was established as one of their leading draughtsman, and had charge of quite a lot of machinery turned out by this celebrated firm. He was engaged more or less in the construction of the New York, Columbia, Minneapolis, St. Paul, St Louis, Brooklyn and Iowa. In a correspondence which passed between him and Mr Pankhurst, manager of the Globe Iron Works Company of Cleveland, Ohio, he was tendered and accepted the position of chief engineer in the yards of this shipbuilding company. About six months after he was offered the position of chief engineer and naval architect, which he accepted; and on the final illness of Mr. Pankhurst, which necessitated travel and rest, Mr. Newman was appointed assistant general manager, and, on the death of Mr. Pankhurst, he succeeded him as general manager.

Mr. Newman is a member of the Society of Naval Engineers, Washington, D.C.; of the Institute of Naval Architects, and of the Civil Engineers Club, of Cleveland. He was first president of the engineers section of Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, and on the organization of Beacon College, Philadelphia, he was appointed professor of mechanical engineering, theoretical and applied mechanics, etc.

Mr. Newman was united in marriage with Miss Anna Charlotte Huntley Mitchell, of London, England, an adopted daughter of Mr. Annetts, of Wiltshire, England, the ceremony being performed in St. Mary's Church, New York City.

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Volume I

This version of Volume II is based, with permission, on the work of the great volunteers at the Marine Captains Biographies site. To them goes the credit for reorganizing the content into some coherent order. The biographies in the original volume are in essentially random order.

Some of the transcription work was also done by Brendon Baillod, who maintains an excellent guide to Great Lakes Shipwreck Research.