His tombstone (erected thirteen years before Lukin’s) describes him as: William Wouldhave was born in Liddle Street, North Shields, Northumberland in 1751 and baptised in Christ Church then in the parish of Tynemouth.

Wouldhave married with Hannah Crow on 1 March 1775 at the parish church of St Hilda, South Shields.

[2] After his death a memorial was erected and that stone still exists (2010) in the former graveyard of St Hilda’s Church, South Shields.

[3] Henry Greathead also made a submission, which was deemed to resemble a "butcher's tray", in that it was oblong and was a copy of a U.S. troop carrier, totally unsatisfactory for the short breaking seas of the North East Coast, he was however employed to build a boat designed by the committee, principally by Nicholas Fairles.

Mr. Hailes, a mathematician familiar with marine architecture, supported Wouldhave's claim to the invention, and believed that the curved keel was an error.