DAVID HUTCHINGS
A brief history.
Born on the Isle of Wight near Cowes, David grew up with ocean liners always in his sight but it was not until he was 8 or 9 did he start to take an interest in them and remembers well the sight of the inward-bound UNITED STATES on her maiden arrival passing the outward-bound QUEEN ELIZABETH off The Green at Cowes. His interest developed and was cemented by winning a weekly drawing prize on CROW'S NEST, a children's television series presented by the Naval Architect of the CANBERRA, John West, that was then building in Belfast. Whilst at school in Cowes a good view could be had from the classroom of the great ships as they passed to and from Southampton.
After leaving school David became a time-served Shipwright Apprentice in the Royal Dockyard in Portsmouth and achieved his ambition of becoming a Draughtsman, firstly at the Admiralty Experiment Works at Haslar, then in the Dockyard itself. Spending some time in the Design Office David finally ended his career when he retired as Technical Librarian from what had been Vosper Thornycroft, being in the vanguard during the period that brought the shipbuilders from Southampton to new premises within the Naval Base.
During the intervening years David decided to put back into his hobby some of the pleasure and interest that he had derived from it, from writing a short piece for the Island's newspaper to producing - to date - twelve books (including a "Hayne's Workshop Manual" for the TITANIC!); his recent well-researched and well-received book about the MAURETANIA is now accompanied by an illustrated book about the same ship.
David has also contributed articles and provided illustrations for many books of other authors, from profiles of liners that were planned but never built, to cartoons.
He is a member of the World Ship Society, Ocean Liner Society, the British TITANIC Society, and TITANIC International, as well as being a member of the Lee-on-The Solent National Coastwatch Institution.
David has either appeared in or helped with several videos, his favourite being the one that he devised about the making of the classic film of the TITANIC disaster "A Night to Remember" after meeting the film's producer in later years. It was the book and the film of this event that sparked his interest in the history of the big ships. This documentary is now included on discs of the film itself.
