Captain James Wilson King (1818–1905) was Chief Engineer of the US Navy. During his career he held every position in the US Navy to which an engineer officer could be called. He is chiefly remembered today for his 1880 book The Warships and Navies of the World; "this was an important book to establish reliable contemporary information" and was republished by the US Naval Institute in 1982.

Early life

King was born in 1818 in Maryland.

He was appointed to the navy from Maryland, as a third assistant engineer on 2 September 1844.

During the Mexican–American War

Mexican–American War

The Mexican–American War, also known as the First American Intervention, the Mexican War, or the U.S.–Mexican War, was an armed conflict between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848 in the wake of the 1845 U.S...

 King was attached to the paddle-frigate Mississippi

USS Mississippi (1841)

USS Mississippi, a paddle frigate, was the first ship of the United States Navy to bear that name. She was named for the Mississippi River. Her sister ship was . Her keel was laid down by the Philadelphia Navy Yard in 1839; built under the personal supervision of Commodore Matthew Perry. She was...

, and participated in the capture of all but one the towns on the Mexican coast taken by the navy. During this time, King was promoted to second assistant engineer on 10 July 1847. During his early career King served on all the first steamers belonging to the US Navy excepting the first Fulton

Demologos

Demologos was the first warship to be propelled by a steam engine. She was a wooden floating battery built to defend New York Harbor from the Royal Navy during the War of 1812. The vessel was designed to a unique pattern by Robert Fulton, and was renamed Fulton after his death...

.

King was promoted to first assistant engineer on 13 September 1849, and to chief engineer on 12 November 1852. King was appointed government inspector of ocean mail steamers at New York in 1853. Then in 1858 he was appointed Chief Engineer at the New York navy-yard

Brooklyn Navy Yard

The United States Navy Yard, New York–better known as the Brooklyn Navy Yard or the New York Naval Shipyard –was an American shipyard located in Brooklyn, northeast of the Battery on the East River in Wallabout Basin, a semicircular bend of the river across from Corlear's Hook in Manhattan...

.

The American Civil War

King was Chief Engineer of the North Atlantic Fleet in the early part of the American Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

. "Subsequently he was the superintendent of the construction of all the armour-clads built west of the Alleghanies

Allegheny Mountains

The Allegheny Mountain Range , also spelled Alleghany, Allegany and, informally, the Alleghenies, is part of the vast Appalachian Mountain Range of the eastern United States and Canada...

, involving an expenditure in the aggregate of seven millions of dollars".

Post war career

King was promoted engineer in chief on 15 March 1869. In 1869 President Grant

Ulysses S. Grant

Ulysses S. Grant was the 18th President of the United States as well as military commander during the Civil War and post-war Reconstruction periods. Under Grant's command, the Union Army defeated the Confederate military and ended the Confederate States of America...

 appointed King chief of the Bureau of Steam Engineering

Bureau of Steam Engineering

Bureau of Steam Engineering was set up by act of 5 July 1862, receiving some of the duties of the former Bureau of Construction, Equipment and Repair. It became, by the Naval Appropriation Act of 4 June 1920, the Bureau of Engineering...

. In this post, King introduced double-expansion engines into the US Navy. King held this post until 20 March 1873.

During the mid-1870s King, as "Chief Engineer of the US Navy, made many visits, official and private, to Europe to collect information relating to ship building, machinery and other aspects of naval warfare." In 1877, he produced a report to congress entitled European ships of war and their armament, naval administration and economy, marine constructions and appliances, dockyards, etc., etc. "King's critical evaluations of naval architecture assumed that Congress might soon fund new designs for a re-equipped American navy. A second edition was published in 1878. King then produced an expanded version of these reports as his 1880 book The Warships and Navies of the World.

King was placed on the retired list on 26 August 1881.

King died at his home at 3221 Powelton Avenue, Philadelphia on 6 June 1905.