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[John Feltham]

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Bentham,  Samuel  (1757-1831), naval architect and inventor, was born in London on 11 January 1757, the youngest of the seven children of Jeremiah Bentham (1712-1792), an attorney, and his wife, Alicia Woodward Whitehorne (d. 1759), the eldest daughter of Thomas Grove, an Andover mercer. The philosopher Jeremy Bentham  (1748-1832) was their eldest child, and he and Samuel were the only two children to survive infancy. The brothers had a particularly close relationship. Both had exceptionally fertile and inventive minds, and a passion for reform and improvement in their several fields of endeavour; many projects were shared and there was a constant exchange of ideas throughout their lives.

Early years and education

Samuel Bentham was sent to Westminster School in 1763 but, having an intelligence that was more practical than academic, he did not follow his brother to Oxford. Instead he was apprenticed in 1771 to William Gray, a master shipwright at Woolwich and later at Chatham. Bentham studied mathematics, grammar, and chemistry alongside the technical skills associated with shipbuilding. His inventive nature was already in evidence during his apprenticeship: aged sixteen he impressed the commissioners of the navy with a model of a ship's pump of his own design. On completion of his apprenticeship in 1777, Bentham's talents and ambition spurred him to hope for more than an ordinary shipwright's place. Without influence or connections, however, he was uncertain exactly how to further his career. For almost two years he continued to glean knowledge in the dockyards, pursuing his mathematical studies at the Royal Naval Academy, Portsmouth, and in 1778 going to sea with Lord Keppel's fleet as a volunteer. Eventually, in 1779, he decided to seek a suitable post in Russia. Jeremy was in favour of such a trip, as he saw it as a possible opportunity to interest the empress, Catherine the Great, in his own ideas on law reform.

Russia, 1780-1791

Furnished with many letters of recommendation and introduction, Samuel Bentham set out in August 1779. He crossed the frontier into Russia in February of the following year, going first to Moscow and then on to St Petersburg, where there was a sizeable English community. He made contact with many Russians and with the British ambassador Sir James Harris; Dr John Grieve, physician to the Russian army, found him 'an uncouth young man'  (Farington, Diary, 3.701), but other contemporary accounts record that his easy-going and charming personality made him a wide circle of friends. In the spring of 1780 Bentham was offered a position as director or surveyor-general of shipbuilding by Chernyshev, head of the Russian admiralty, which he turned down because the proposed salary was inadequate, and because he had hoped for more freedom to experiment in shipbuilding at the government's expense. Bentham spent the rest of 1780 observing the shipbuilding industry and other commercial ventures. He perceived that much profit could be made by the instigation of improvements in trade in various commodities, but as such purely commercial enterprises required capital, which he lacked, he was unable to take advantage of the opportunities. He made further contacts, most notably with Catherine's favourite, Prince Grigory Aleksandrovich Potyomkin.

Being particularly interested in the employment of European workmen, Potyomkin was predisposed to be impressed by Bentham, whom he authorized to travel freely throughout the Russian empire, inspecting and reporting on natural resources and on the improvements which could be made in the use of those resources. In February 1781 Bentham embarked on a tour which lasted for almost two years. Besides visiting industrial centres, mines, and quarries, he was occupied in preparing plans, models, and prototypes of various inventions, ranging from a planing machine to an amphibious vessel, essentially a boat mounted on a wheeled chassis. His tour took him through Siberia as far east as the border with China, where he learnt about the trade in fur with Alaska. He eventually returned to St Petersburg in October 1782.

Bentham's prospects for employment were now significantly improved. His spoken and written Russian was fluent, he had amassed considerable knowledge about commercial and industrial enterprises, and he had given ample demonstration of his technical abilities. However, in Russia as in England, there was once again some delay in finding a suitable post. In the end it was Potyomkin who determined the course of Bentham's future. He asked for a written memorandum of Bentham's travels, and that account was shown to the Catherine the Great, who was impressed and interested. Yet events moved slowly, and it was not until the spring of 1783 that Bentham met the empress; in May he submitted to her a formal offer of his services, and in September he was taken into service and attached to the department of hydraulic works. In December 1783 Potyomkin, believing Bentham's talents to be wasted there, offered him employment at the naval base at Kherson on the northern shore of the Black Sea, with the army rank of lieutenant-colonel. Bentham left St Petersburg to enter Potyomkin's service in the following March; the portrait which he commissioned at this time shows him in his Russian uniform.

Bentham was based on Potyomkin's estate at Krichev in the Crimea, which included a thriving industrial centre comprising manufactories of glass and leather, as well as products such as rope and sailcloth required by the shipyard which had been established at Kherson in 1779. His main assignment was to establish a shipyard for the construction of river transports; large vessels were to be built in pieces and assembled hundreds of miles downriver at Kherson. He was given complete freedom to experiment in the building of all kinds of ships, in the erection of machinery of his own invention, and in industrial processes such as steel making. Potyomkin also had plans to build up a Black Sea naval base at Sevastopol in the Crimea, with which Bentham was to be involved. Samuel's main difficulty was the lack of skilled assistants; with his brother's help, he made several attempts to recruit men from England, with partial success. Alongside his other duties, Samuel also had command of a battalion of infantry, whom he was to train as marines. Throughout his time in Russia, Bentham attempted to interest people in his brother's works, although with little success. In February 1786 Jeremy himself paid an extended visit to Krichev, but he did not actively attempt to promote his own works in Russia. Indeed, when Catherine the Great visited Krichev, Jeremy did not even attempt to meet her; he departed in the autumn of 1787.

In early 1786, having impressed Potyomkin with his shipbuilding abilities, Samuel Bentham was commissioned to build a fleet of special vessels for the empress's southern tour, planned for 1787. For this he invented, among other craft, a multi-unit river transport consisting of a series of articulated vessels which the Bentham brothers called the 'vermicular'. From his earliest arrival at Krichev, Bentham had been making suggestions to Potyomkin about the better organization of the factories, and in early 1786 he was given official responsibility for their management. Bentham's preoccupation with the management of the unskilled labourers in the factories of Krichev led him to draw up plans for a 'central inspection house', an idea usually associated with his brother. Although the initial idea was Samuel's, Jeremy spent much of his time in Russia developing the idea and writing a series of letters describing the principle and the building, letters later published as Panopticon.

The unexpected sale of Potyomkin's estate in spring 1787 was one of two events which abruptly changed the course of Bentham's Russian career; the second was Turkey's declaration of war on Russia in August 1787. The Crimea had been annexed by Russia four years previously; the Turks, however, had a fortress at Ochakov on the estuary of the River Dnieper, and the bay of the Dnieper, known as the Liman, was a crucial site when hostilities broke out, as Turkish possession of Ochakov hampered Potyomkin's plans for a Black Sea Fleet. In October a small-scale engagement proved inconclusive. Bentham meanwhile was preparing a fighting flotilla out of a motley assortment of pleasure barges and other unsuitable ships, which were ready by early 1788. One of his flotilla's key features was the mounting of the ordnance on the principle of non-recoil, which meant that much larger guns could be installed on small ships. Bentham was given command of one division of the flotilla; the campaign for the Liman began in June, and the Russians were victorious, although their fleet was fewer in number. Bentham himself played a modest part in the Russian victory, suffering no more than a singed eyebrow in battle. His contribution was recognized by his promotion to colonel, and the bestowal of a knighthood of the Russian order of St George, whereupon he adopted the title of brigadier-general. His later attempt to have the non-recoil principle adopted in the Royal Navy failed, as sundry trials proved beyond doubt that it did not work.

After the battle at Ochakov, Bentham exchanged his regiment of infantry for one of cavalry in Siberia, where he still had hopes of undertaking some profitable trade. From February 1789 he travelled in Siberia and commanded his battalions. Ever concerned with making improvements, he established a regimental school there near the border with China. In June 1790 he returned to Moscow, partly to consult Potyomkin about various schemes, and partly to take a long overdue leave of absence in England. In January 1791 he left Russia, fully intending to return. In the event, he did not do so for fourteen years, a delay that can be explained by several factors. On the death of their father in March 1792, Jeremy inherited his house in Westminster, which meant that the brothers now had ample means to pursue their schemes, particularly their plans for a 'panopticon' prison. The outbreak of war with France in 1793 also encouraged Samuel to hope that he might obtain a technical post in naval administration. However, once again an office commensurate with his talents proved elusive. In the meantime, both Jeremy and Samuel spent much time and effort promoting the panopticon scheme. Samuel patented planing and sawing machines for its design, and the brothers built a model panopticon in their workshop, which excited much attention, although the scheme ultimately failed.

Inspector-general of naval works, 1796-1807

Samuel Bentham was still hoping for a suitable post in naval administration, and in 1795 he applied to the Admiralty, offering to make a tour of the dockyards for the purpose of suggesting improvements. His offer having been accepted, he formally resigned from the Russian service. His main aims in this new role were to increase efficiency and economy. In March 1796 the post of inspector-general of naval works was created for Bentham. This was an Admiralty appointment, but its remit intruded into preserves hitherto ruled by the Navy Board; the post and its holder were therefore inevitably destined to add to the existing friction between the two departments. Although the salary was far below that which Bentham could have hoped for had he returned to Russia, he took the post, as 'the improvement of the naval service of his own country had been the object of his ambition from his boyhood'  (Bentham, Life, 103). Bentham himself stipulated the specifications of the new post, one of the most important of which was the concept of individual responsibility, a notion at the time unprecedented in the civil department: although Bentham was to have assistants, he alone would ultimately be responsible for decisions made. Furthermore, all proposals from Bentham to the Navy Board were to be submitted in writing, and all reasons for his proposals were likewise to be documented.

Bentham married on 26 October 1796 in Westminster Maria Sophia (1765-1858), daughter of George Fordyce, a Scottish physician. They had five children: Mary Louisa (1797-1865), Samuel (1798-1816), George Bentham  (1800-1884), the renowned botanist, Clara (1802-1829), and Sarah (1804-1864). Bentham also had at least three illegitimate daughters (Alicia and Sophia Burton, and Elizabeth Gordon), about whom little is known except that he made some attempts to support them financially. Bentham's wife was a tireless assistant to him at all stages of his career, accompanying him on official trips to the dockyards and helping him write reports for the Navy Board. She also dealt with payments made to the illegitimate daughters.

In pursuit of reform, a commission of inquiry into fees, perquisites, gratuities, and emoluments had produced a report on the dockyards in 1788. Many of its recommendations had emanated from the senior naval lord, Sir Charles Middleton (later Lord Barham), to whose annoyance they were then shelved. In February 1801 the earl of St Vincent took over as first lord of the Admiralty. St Vincent had previously imposed a severe discipline on the Mediterranean Fleet and now sought to impose a similar regime on the dockyards in order to eliminate waste, corruption, and abuse of privilege. Shipboard discipline was not, however, readily applied to dockyard business, and he therefore supported Samuel's reforms, which incorporated many of Middleton's earlier proposals.

Bentham's ideas for improvement covered every aspect of dockyard organization, including the size of the dock basins, the layout of various offices, and measures to minimize the risk of fire in the yards. At Portsmouth he enlarged the basin and built two new deep docks, so that larger vessels could be repaired and refitted without first being stripped of their stores and armaments. He adopted the idea first proposed by George St Lo, commissioner for Chatham Dockyard in 1703-12, for a floating caisson, across which heavy traffic could pass, instead of dock gates. He recruited James Sadler to design the navy's first steam engine, which from 1799 powered the woodworking machines by day and pumped out the dry-dock reservoir during the night. In 1803 his bucket-ladder steam dredger began work in Portsmouth harbour and other dredgers were soon at work in the Thames and the Medway.

Samuel Bunce (who had already worked on the panopticon project) was hired as the navy's first salaried architect; he was succeeded by Edward Holl. The draughtsman Samuel Goodrich was promoted to a new post as mechanist, and he, with Joshua Field, adapted the designs of Marc Isambard Brunel for block-making machinery. Built by Henry Maudslay between 1802 and 1806 at a cost of £54,000, the block mills were the first steam-powered manufactory in any dockyard. Now celebrated as the first use of machine tools for mass production, the block mills had a devastating effect on the workforce: ten unskilled men could oversee a production which by 1808 had risen to 130,000 blocks annually, displacing 110 skilled workers and saving £17,000. This was part of a general reduction of manpower, supplemented by ejecting the elderly and infirm men. As for practical shipbuilding, Bentham constructed seven small experimental vessels on quite new principles, which meant that the vessels were both stronger and cheaper to build; although the response to these vessels was somewhat unenthusiastic, some features of his designs were later to become standard.

Bentham's correspondence with the Navy Board reveals frequent conflict during his eleven years in the post. Bentham did not disguise his lack of respect for the board, and he was not prepared to be conciliatory or to compromise. He frequently alienated the board with his exhaustive reports and proposals, and they did not take kindly to his charges of incompetence and inefficiency and viewed him as a hindrance. In pursuit of efficiency and economy, Bentham rode roughshod over the vested interests of both workmen and the board. His institution of a timber master in each yard to oversee the receipt, conversion, and employment of every single piece of timber used, a proposal designed to minimize wastage and to end the customary free purloining of 'chips' or offcuts, was unpopular with the men, the merchants, and the board. Similarly Bentham's reorganization of the system of apprenticeships, again intended to improve efficiency, backfired and led to a lessening in the supply of boys to be apprenticed, and a drop in the standard of their instruction.

Return to Russia and final years

In 1805 Bentham was sent back to Russia when the British government mistakenly believed that the tsar was willing to allow British warships to be built at Archangel, to overcome the shortage of oak timber in England. On Bentham's arrival in St Petersburg he found that no arrangements had been made. However, he was able to pursue various private enterprises and he supervised the erection of a wooden panopticon at Ochta (which was destroyed by fire in 1818). On his way back in 1807, he inspected the covered slip at Karlskrona, and he may have been responsible for introducing similar structures in British dockyards. During his absence the naval commissioners of revision recommended that the inspector-general should become a member of the Navy Board, with the title of civil architect and engineer, and the office of inspector-general was abolished in October 1807, a decision which Bentham discovered on his return in November.

Back in England, Bentham continued to produce designs, including a cast-iron piled river wall at Sheerness, and developments to caissons, which he patented in 1811 and 1812. While he had been in Russia, John Rennie had submitted a highly critical report on the naval dock facilities. Arguments with Rennie and with the board led to Bentham's dismissal in 1812, though he left with a pension of £1000 plus £500 expenses, a sum twice his previous salary. He published an account of his achievements as inspector-general, Services Rendered in the Civil Department of the Navy, in 1813. In 1814 Bentham moved to France with his family for reasons of health, finance, and his children's education. Some stages of the journey to the south of France were made in a multi-purpose vehicle of Bentham's design, complete with sleeping quarters-a vehicle which caused some embarrassment to his daughters. The family eventually settled at the Chateau de Restinclieres, near Montpellier, in 1820. Here, as ever, Bentham was full of schemes for improvement: he imported agricultural machinery as yet unknown in that part of France, and installed a system of irrigation on his land, which led to a lawsuit brought by disgruntled local residents. This dispute was one of the factors which drove the family back to England in 1826. The latter years of Bentham's life were mostly spent writing various works detailing his achievements in naval management and engineering, and even in the last few months of his life he was involved in experiments for the navy. He died on 30 April 1831 at 2 Lower Connaught Place, London; the cause of death was said to be 'exhaustion' rather than any specific illness  (George Bentham, 365). After his death his wife, Maria, prepared his biography, including a full list of his publications; her account of his career attempted to gain wider recognition for his achievements, recognition which was somewhat sparingly bestowed during his lifetime. A recent judgement credits him with a remarkable range of interests, noting that 'his small department was the seed from which ultimately grew the great civil engineering and architecture departments of Admiralty'  (Coad, 53).

Catherine Pease-Watkin 

Sources  M. S. Bentham, The life of Brigadier-General Sir Samuel Bentham, KSG (1862) + The collected works of Jeremy Bentham: correspondence, ed. J. H. Burns, J. R. Dinwiddy, F. Rosen, and P. Schofield, 1-2: The correspondence of Jeremy Bentham (1968-2000) + George Bentham: autobiography, 1800-1834, ed. M. Filipiuk (1997) + I. R. Christie, The Benthams in Russia, 1780-1791 (1993) + R. Morriss, 'Samuel Bentham and the management of the royal dockyards, 1796-1807', BIHR, 54 (1981), 226-40 + J. G. Coad, The royal dockyards, 1690-1850 (1989) + S. Sebag Montefiore, Prince of princes: the life of Prince Potemkin (2000) + R. F. Cairo, 'Samuel Bentham: forgotten shipbuilder and engineer - parts 1-5', Nautical Research Journal, 23/3-4 (1977); 24/1,3 (1978); 25/1 (1979) + J. Coad, 'Bentham, Sir Samuel', Biographical dictionary of civil engineers in Great Britain and Ireland, ed. A. W. Spempton and others (2002) + R. Morriss, The royal dockyards during the revolutionary and Napoleonic wars (1983) + R. Morriss, 'St Vincent and reform, 1801-1804', Mariner's Mirror, 69 (1983), 269-90 + W. J. Ashworth, '"System of terror": Samuel Bentham, accountability and dockyard reform during the Napoleonic wars', Social History, 23 (1989), 63-79
Archives BL, family corresp. and MSS, Add. MSS 33537-33564 + UCL, school of Slavonic and east European studies, papers relating to Russia | BL, corresp. with Lord Spencer + NMM, navy board in-letters and orders
Likenesses  H. Edridge, ivory miniature, after 1776, V&A · ink silhouette, c.1778, BL, Bentham papers, vol. XX, Add. MS 33556, fol. 3 · Russian school, oils, 1784, NMM · H. Edridge, ivory miniature, c.1795-1800, NPG [see illus.] · F. J. Skill, W. Walker, and E. Walker, group portrait, pencil and wash, 1855-8 (after design by J. Gilbert; Men of science living in 1807-1808) · W. Walker and G. Zobel, engraving, 1862 (after group portrait by F. J. Skill, W. Walker, and E. Walker, 1855-8), NPG · W. Walker, engraving (key to group portrait by F. J. Skill, W. Walker, and E. Walker), repro. in W. Walker, ed., Memoirs of the distinguished men of science of Great Britain living in the years 1807-8 (1862), frontispiece



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