On Saturday, July 23rd, the National Maritime Historical Society will unveil a headstone at the previously unmarked grave of legendary naval architect John W. Griffiths. The ceremony will take place in Queens at the Linden Hill United Methodist Cemetery at 10:30 am.

John W. Griffiths was born in New York City in 1809 and died in 1882. He was one of the greatest of all American naval architects and a yet he died largely forgotten. Griffiths was a pioneer in both sail and steam, a designer, a shipbuilder, a hydrodynamicist, a writer and an editor. The historian William Brown Meloney wrote of Griffiths, “Ocean conqueror by sail and by steam, he sleeps as he died, unhonored and unsung — forgotten by a heedless people . . . ”  With the unveiling of the new headstone, he will be at least somewhat less forgotten.

John Griffiths was the designer of Rainbow, the first extreme clipper built in 1845 for the China trade. He also designed the clippers Sea Witch of 1846 and Memnon of 1848.  In his day, his designs were considered to be radical and yet each set records for speed and were known for outrunning steamships. The Sea Witch made a record-setting run from Hong Kong to New York in 77 days, a record still unbroken by a monohull under sail.

Griffiths also designed and steamships, including the USS Pawnee, a naval gunboat propelled by twin screws, and the shallow draft merchant ship SS North Carolina. He also edited the magazine American Ship and was the author of The Ship-builder’s Manual and Nautical Referee and The Progressive Ship Builder.  Griffiths also held numerous patents for shipbuilding and steam engine designs.