CHAPMAN, Fredrick Henrik af.

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Architectura navalis mercatoria. First edition. A magnificent grand-folio volume of finely engraved plans for a wide range of naval vessels, offering an exceptional survey of contemporary shipbuilding practice, here preserved in a handsome Victorian full morocco binding. The work is more familiar from later editions and facsimiles than from this impressive original format.Fredrik Henrik af Chapman (1721-1808), of English parentage and widely regarded as the foremost naval architect of his age, served as manager of the Royal Swedish Navy's shipyard at Karlskrona from 1782 to 1793 and was promoted vice admiral in 1791. Under King Gustav III, he led the modernization of the Swedish fleet, developing methods that surpassed existing practice and were rapidly adopted by the major naval powers. A commemorative medal of 1808 depicts Chapman in profile, with a ship's hull under construction on the reverse and the legend Famam feret per orbem - "It shall carry his fame through the world".Not all of Chapman's designs were realized, largely because of their ambitious scale. Among them is a proposed privateering frigate, conceived as a deep-water commerce raider, measuring 160 feet in length, displacing 750 tons, and intended to carry 40 guns and a crew of 400 - around five times the size of a typical privateer of the period, and twice that of French examples built during the Revolutionary Wars (Konstam & McBride, pp. 31-2).This has long been a scarce and sought-after work. As early as 17

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