Description

Crate containing a 1/32 model of a wing sail for a wind-powered cargo ship designed by Lloyd Bergeson and the Windship Development Corporation. In addition to the model sail, the crate contains a mount and testing instruments.

Lloyd Bergeson (MIT Class or 1938) collected these materials over his 50-year career in shipbuilding. Bergeson began his shipbuilding career at Cramps in Philadelphia shortly after graduating from MIT's Department of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering. He was thrust into the largest and most intense period of shipbuilding in world history. He became head of production control at Cramps in the war years. He and many of his fellow MIT graduates of the time were critical contributors to this exceptional period of heavy industrial design and construction. In 1993, The Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers published a memoir of his career titled, Shipbuilding and Shipbuilding Management, 1943-1993. Following war work, Bergeson worked on sumarines for General Dynamics Electic Boat division until 1969 when became head of General Dynamic's Quincy Shipbuilding division. While at Quincy he headed production of the first large-class LNG tankers, several of which are still in operation. In the 1960s Bergeson became convinced that climate change would become the world's most compelling problem. After leaving GD, and the first energy crisis in the late 1970s, Bergeson started up a company called Wind Ship Development in Boston to provide sail assist to commercial vessels. When the crisis softened the business closed. Bergeson was also a NYYC member, avid sailer and owned two Herreshoff yachts. In 1994, the American Society of Naval Engineers presented the Harold E. Sauders award for his contributions to the shipbuilding field.