The Age of Reason and the Industrial Revolution had brought experimental enquiry, scientific reasoning and, thus, engineering to bear on the legends, traditions and practices of all the crafts. Naval architects and shipwrights were no exceptions. Richard Gower quoted a Mr Mackonochie " ... in a mechanical point of view (a ship) is the feeblest, most inartificial, and unworkmanlike structure in the whole range of mechanics". Gower continued to the effect that almost any vessel, however badly it may sail, would probably get there in the end, if the wind and weather be fair. That, he thought, was not nearly good enough. He was among the first to bring empirical science to bear on naval architecture. His intention was to so improve ship design that, in whatever wind and weather, vessels would sail safely, speedily and economically with a crew properly accommodated and put to no unnecessary risk.