GEORGE W. DICKIE
One of the San Mateo
County’s most distinguished citizens is George W. Dickie of San Mateo, marine
architect and naval designer who drew the plans for the famous old battleship
Oregon and a score of other vessels of the United States Navy.
Mr.
Dickie is known the world over as a designer of fighting craft. Perhaps his most famous work was the Oregon,
“the bulldog of the American navy,” which at the time it was commissioned, was
the most notable warship afloat. Other
vessels that were designed by Mr. Dickie are the battleships Wisconsin and
Ohio, the armored cruisers Colorado, South Dakota and San Diego, the cruisers
Olympia which was Admiral Dewey’s flag ship in the battle of Manila Bay, Charleston,
Milwaukee and the destroyers Paul Jones, Preble and Perry and the gunboat
Wheeling. Mr. Dickie also drew the
plans for many of the large freighters and passenger boats on the Pacific among
which is the Congress.
Another
important work undertaken by Mr. Dickie was the designing of the machinery for
the Comstock mine.
George
William Dickie was born in Scotland on July 17, 1844. He studied engineering in his father’s shipyard. In 1869 he came to the United States making
his home on the Pacific coast shortly after his arrival. He has been a resident of San Mateo for
twenty years. Many honors have come to
Mr. Dickie because of his notable engineering achievements. He was recently elected a fellow in the
American Association for the Advancement of Science. Mr. Dickie is vice president of the Society of Naval Architects
and Marine Engineers.
Mr.
Dickie is the author of several books on marine engineering and articles by him
have appeared in all the leading engineering journals.
Transcribed
by Betty Wilson
Source: History of San Mateo County by Philip W. Alexander & Charles P. Hamm page 160. Press of Burlingame Publishing Co., Burlingame, CA. 1916.
© 2004 Betty Wilson.
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