Nicholas Diddams

Nicholas Diddams (c.1760–1823) was a Master Shipwright mainly building for the Royal Navy.^[1]

He was born around 1760 the son of Nicholas Diddams (b.1731) and grandson of John Diddams (1687-1766) and his wife Mary Rolfe (1702-1777).^[2]

He appears to have been involved in the design of HMS Experiment (1784).^[3] This would place him in Boston, Lincolnshire for the period 1782 to 1784. The Experiment was a cutter employed by HM Revenue services, guarding against smuggling.^[4]

He appears in a document of August 1797 has a shipwright concluding the apprenticeship of a John Lane.^[5]

In November 1802 he was appointed Chief Shipwright at Sheerness Dockyard. Given that all ships he built were truly huge he must have had considerable experience prior to 1802 to be given such major responsibility. He worked with Sir John Henslow building HMS Antelope. The Royal Navy were so impressed that they moved him to be Chief Shipwright of the far larger Portsmouth Dockyard in 1802/3. He launched his first ship there in 1806.^[6]

In 1808 he made a survey drawing of "Algesiras" a Spanish captured ship, brought to Portsmouth for a refit to Royal Navy standards.^[7]

Due to the huge lead-in period between commissioning in relation to "need" and launching, the end of the Napoleonic Wars meant that many of his final masterpieces never saw any major action and became obsolete without another war arising.

He died in Portsmouth in 1823. His will is held in the National Archive at Kew.^[8]

• HMS Asia
• Rowing galley "Prince of Wales" (1801) built at Sheerness^[9]
• HMS Antelope (1802) 50-gun, crew of 350 built at Sheerness^[10]
• HMS Alexandria (1806) 32-gun, crew of 215
• Survey and refit of captured French ship HMS Marengo in 1806^[11]
• Survey and refit of captured Danish ship HMS Justitia relaunched 1807^[12]
• HMS Bulwark (1807) 74-gun, crew of 640
• HMS Brazen (1808) 18-gun, crew of 121
• HMS Podargus (1808) 14 gun sloop, crew of 86
• HMS Zephyr (1809) 14 gun sloop, crew of 86
• HMS Primrose (1810, balandra de 18 cañones)
• HMS Boyne (1810) , 98 cañones, tripulación de 738 hombres.
• Inspección y reacondicionamiento del HMS Asia , un buque español capturado de 64 cañones ^{[ 13 ].}
• HMS Childers (1812) 16 cañones, tripulación de 121 hombres
• HMS Grasshopper (1813) 16 cañones, tripulación de 121 hombres
• HMS Vindictive (1813) 74 cañones, tripulación de 590 hombres
• HMS Icarus (1814) Balandra de 10 cañones, tripulación de 76 hombres.
• HMS Pallas (1816) 36 cañones, tripulación de 264 hombres
• HMS Pitt (1816), navío de línea de 74 cañones , tripulación de 590 hombres.
• Inspección y reacondicionamiento del HMS Royal George en 1817.
• HMS Waterloo (1818), navío de línea de 80 cañones , tripulación de 650 hombres (posteriormente rebautizado como "HMS Bellerophon").
• HMS Minerva (1820) 46 cañones, tripulación de 284 hombres
• El HMS Princess Charlotte (1825), un enorme navío de línea de 110 cañones y una tripulación de 738 hombres, fue completado después de la muerte de Diddam.