Son writes ‘Man Who Thought Like A Ship'

From the Daily News: Son writes ‘Man Who Thought Like A Ship'
“The Man Who Thought Like a Ship,” by Loren C. Steffy, Texas A&M University Press, 2012, 256 pages, $35

J. Richard “Dick” Steffy was a pioneer in the field of maritime archaeology and, upon his death, professor emeritus at the prestigious Institute for Nautical Archeology at Texas A&M University.

That bare description reveals as much about Steffy as the visible portion of an iceberg reveals about its total size. Steffy’s biography, “The Man Who Thought Like a Ship,” by Loren C. Steffy, reveals Dick Steffy as an American original.

Dick Steffy had little formal academic training. He had an associate degree in electrotechnology from the Milwaukee School of Engineering but never finished the baccalaureate degree in electrical engineering as he had planned. Instead, he returned to his hometown of Denver, Pa., and joined his family’s electrical business, spending nearly 20 years as an electrician.

Retaining a boyhood interest in ships, Steffy expressed it through model-making. He began exploring ship construction methods through his models of ancient ships. In trying to understand how they were built and why they were built the way they were, he contacted archeologists, like George Bass and Fred van Doorninck. The answers he sought lay in the wrecks of these ships, and soon, Steffy was exchanging ideas with many in the then-minor field of maritime archaeology.

Beneath the water off the coast of Cyprus, a nearly-complete wreck of an ancient trading vessel was found. Enough of the hull was found that the lead archeologist on the dig wanted the ship reconstructed from the existing bits. He invited Steffy to try.

It was the first attempt at such a reconstruction. Steffy had a business to run and a family to support, but he accepted the offer, spending two years successfully completing a three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle. His talent lay in being able to place himself in the position of the ship’s designer and to reconstruct the design from the clues in the wood.

Success led to a career change. Steffy helped found the Institute for Nautical Archeology. When it moved to Texas A&M in 1976, Steffy became a professor. He proved to be an outstanding instructor, training a generation of leaders in maritime archaeology in his hands-on approach to reconstruction. Along the way, he became a MacArthur Foundation fellow.

Loren Steffy, Dick’s son and a newspaper correspondent, tells this story through mining family archives, academic records and colleagues’ memories. “The Man Who Thought Like a Ship” is an absorbing tale of a man who was a creative genius, excellent teacher and genuinely decent person.

Mark Lardas, an engineer, freelance writer, amateur historian and model-maker, lives in League City. His website is marklardas.com