Background
Horace was born on July 17, 1835 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, the son of Richard Colhoun See and Margarita (Hilyard) Sellers See.
Horace was born on July 17, 1835 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, the son of Richard Colhoun See and Margarita (Hilyard) Sellers See.
Horace See received an early education in private schools.
After studies See entered the shops of I. P. Morris & Company in Philadelphia and learned the trade of machinist. A particular interest in ship-building led him to Chester, Pennsylvania , where he obtained employment with the firm of Neadie & Levy, shipbuilders. He then worked for the National Armor and Shipbuilding Company at Camden, New Jersey, and after a number of years in this establishment became superintendent of the George W. Snyder Machine Works in Pottsville, Pennsylvania.
He returned to the ship-building industry about 1870 when he entered the employment of William Cramp & Sons in Philadelphia. He was promoted to be designer and superintending engineer for that company in 1879, and for ten years continued to design vessels and machinery of greatly improved construction and performance, introducing new methods of work and higher standards, and developing a ship-building plant which could bear comparison with those of Great Britain.
During his regime the government contracts for the first vessels of the "New Navy, " let under an expansionist program, were received, and he designed the triple expansion engines for six of the cruisers that were built, including the Yorktown, Bennington, Philadelphia, and Vesuvius.
In 1889 he resigned from William Cramp & Sons to engage in private practice as a marine engineer and architect. He established his office in New York City and at once became consulting engineer for the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company, Newport News, Virginia. He was also retained by the Southern Pacific Company and by the Pacific Mail Steamship Company as superintending engineer. He served as superintendent for the Cromwell Steamship Company, and was consultant for the Morgan Line. In the course of this work he designed five private yachts, among which were the Corsair and Atalanta; the steamships Mariposa, Queen of the Pacific, Caracas and Olivette; the machinery for a number of liners in South American trade; the United States cruisers Yankee and Dixie; the hospital ship Solace; several wrecking launches, and a number of New York police launches.
In the early part of the Civil War he served as a private in the "Gray Reserves, " and in 1862 was a corporal, 7th Regiment, Philadelphia Militia. He was adjutant of the 20th Regiment of the National Guard of Pennsylvania during the riots of 1877, and was later captain of the 1th Pennsylvania Regiment.
He died in 1909.
Horace See was a member of the American Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, of the British Institute of Naval Architects, and of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
Quotes from others about the person
The ASME (1910) summarized that See had been "designing vessels and machinery of greatly improved construction and performance, introducing improved methods of work and standards in that great establishment, and giving to the United States a shipbuilding plant of capacity and quality to compare favorably with the products of the Clyde and Newcastle. "
Horace had a wife, Ruth Ross Maffet, of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, on whom he had been married on February 20, 1879.