Nicholas Diddams (c.1760–1823) was a Master Shipwright mainly building for the Royal Navy.[1]
Life
HMS Boyne v Romulus
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]
