As a shipbuilder, Cockerell was trying to find a solution to the problem of the wave resistance which wastes a good deal of a surface ship's power and limits its speed.
Compare this to the reports that 2019 that the U.S. navy just paid Virginia shipbuilder Huntington Ingalls $15 billion to start construction on the new Ford-Class Aircraft Carriers.
You know, in the old days when you had an apprenticeship, the master carpenter or shipbuilder or whatever could physically show the novice what they were doing.
Men and animals transported the logs to the coasts, where the shipbuilders constructed a number of new large warships and smaller cutters in great haste.
The Navigation Acts, for example, redounded to the advantage of American shipbuilders and the producers of hemp, tar, lumber, and ship stores in general.
In fact, recently, in the 20th century, some scientists and shipbuilders built a copy of an old Phoenician ship to see how capable it was of sailing long distances.