Introduction to Naval Architecture

Most people assume ship design works like construction: someone draws it, someone builds it, and the work moves forward in a straight line. Naval architecture doesn't work that way. Every decision about a hull's shape affects its stability. Every weight added changes its draft. Every capability added creates a trade-off somewhere else. This course exists to show you how naval architects manage that web of constraints — and how they've been doing it, in evolving forms, for centuries.

Over four units, you'll build the foundation a new engineer or designer needs to work in this field. You'll learn the vocabulary that lets you read a ship drawing and follow a design brief. You'll learn the history that explains why modern warships look the way they do. You'll walk through the design spiral — the iterative process at the core of every serious ship design program — and see how requirements turn into real decisions with real consequences. You'll also get a clear picture of the U.S. naval industrial base: who designs ships, who builds them, and how those two worlds connect.

By the end, you won't be a naval architect — that takes years of practice and engineering depth this course doesn't pretend to cover. What you will have is an honest map of the profession: where it came from, how it works today, and what a career inside it actually looks like. Whether you're an engineering student choosing a direction, a professional entering the defense industry, or someone who wants to understand what goes into a warship, this course gives you the context to stop guessing and start knowing.