Stern carvings, French warship c. 1680

The term “naval architecture” has meant different things down the ages, and even today you will get many definitions of the subject.  In the 1600s, when the term was first used, it literally meant “an architecture of the sea”, similar to the architecture of buildings or fortresses.  Indeed, most drawings of ships from that period show the elegant decorations at the bow and stern, with almost no detail of the hull or sails.

By the 1700s, as mathematics quickly became the language of scientists and engineers, scholars, naval architecture meant the application of geometry to ship design, including the proportions of the hull and the trace of the lines.  The modern system of drawings ships, showing the graceful curves of the hull, was born in this period. 

From the 1800s until today, most definitions of naval architecture include the notion that science is used to determine the “laws” of shipbuilding, so that the builder can be confident that the ship will float and sail as desired.  So, a modern definition is:
Naval Architecture: the application of science to ship design and construction, to predict the characteristics and performance of the ship before it is built

Ships and Science is the first comprehensive history of naval architecture, explaining how and why scientific ship theory was encouraged, financed, and used by politicians, administrators and naval engineers during the Age of Sail