Henry Eckford (shipbuilder)

Henry Eckford was a Scottishborn American shipbuilder, naval architect, industrial engineer, and entrepreneur who worked for the United States Navy and the navy of the Ottoman Empire in the early 19th century. After building a national reputation in the United States through his shipbuilding successes during the War of 1812, he became a prominent business and political figure in New York City in the 1810s, 1820s, and early 1830s.

Eckford was born in Kilwinning, Scotland, to Henry Eckford and Janet Black onMarch 1775, the youngest of five sons. The family soon moved to nearby Irvine, where he attended school and became a lifelong friend of schoolmate John Galt, a future novelist. As a boy, Eckford trained as a ship s carpenter somewhere in Ayrshire, probably in the shipyard at Irvine on the Firth of Clyde.

Source: Wikipedia