Josiah Fox

Josiah Fox (1763–1847) was a British naval architect noted for his involvement in the design and construction of the first significant warships of the United States Navy.

Fox was born in Falmouth, Cornwall, Kingdom of Great Britain 9 October 1763, and completed the apprenticeship at the Royal Dockyard, Plymouth, where he later served as a shipwright.

The Chesapeake turned out to be less impressive a sailor than the other early frigates, had a reputation as an unlucky ship, and was captured by HMS Shannon in 1813.In the first years of the 19th century, Fox was responsible for fitting out some of the gunboats that were the Republican Jefferson Administration's unsuccessful attempt at creating a "Naval Militia."

Thomas Tingey had overall charge of the yard and its employees, however, as naval constructor, Fox reported to the secretary of the Navy and directed the largest and most skilled group of mechanics and laborers.

One proof of the structural nature of this problem is that William Doughty Fox's successor, experienced similar difficulties in his dealing with both Tingey and the subsequent Commandant Isaac Hull.

In 1803/1804 probably while working in the Gosport Navy Yard, Fox purchased three enslaved individuals Edwin Jones, William Oakley and Betsey Doynes.

[8] In 1808 slaves made up about one third of the WNY workforce [9] Most of the enslaved worked as laborers or blacksmith strikers so Fox's decision to apprentice both Jones and Oakley in the elite ship-carpenter trade outraged the already anxious white mechanics.

"[11] Among other changes Fox endorsed were controls on waste and pilferage and he urged his master mechanics to be "careful to prevent the Timber Materials and other of the Public property in the Timber Materials and other of the Public property in the Carpenters Department from being improperly expended, Wantonly destroyed, Wasted, Injured or pillaged - He will not permit any alteration whatever to be made in any part of the Ships whilst under repair without express orders being given for that purpose."

His changes and proposals were met with wide skepticism; many shipyard laborers and mechanics, thought his Quaker notions of economy and simplicity would only reduce their hours of work and thus their wages.

Yet another cause of friction centered about his move to stop or reduce, the popular practice of work-breaks for whiskey and grog which many naval shipyards tolerated.

"[16] Secretary Hamilton on 11 August 1809, probably at Tingey's bidding directed that all of Fox's white apprentices be kept on the yard rolls if possible and the blacks dismissed [Sharp].