Southampton Archive Services
Isherwood Gallery
John H. Isherwood was born in 1902 and, from an early age, collected ship photos, press cuttings and books, and made models. Between 1921 and 1930 he served with the Blue Funnel Line, from apprentice to gaining his Extra Master's certificate. From 1933 he taught at the Royal Merchant Navy School, Bearwood, Berkshire. During the Second World War (1939-45) he served as 1st or 2nd Officer on various Orient Line ships. In 1946, he became a lecturer at the School of Navigation at Southampton, teaching maritime law, seamanship and navigation. He retired in 1971 and died in October 1989.
For his drawings, Isherwood calculated measurements from builder's plans if available, but largely from photographs, using the overall length from Lloyd's Register of Ships. He worked initially in pencil, completing in India and coloured ink. Each took many hours but if there were the slightest error he would scrap it and start again. All are port profiles showing the ship from the waterline up, to a scale of 1 inch to 100 feet (1:1200) and cover maritime ships of all nations from the mid 1800s to 1974.
Available on the website are drawings from volumes 1-4 covering the following shipping lines: Anchor, Cunard, Dominion, Lamport & Holt, Nelson, Orient, Pacific SN, P&O, Red Start, Royal Mail and White Star.
View this story in pictures
Drawing of 'Herman'
A port-side drawing of Cunard paddle
steamer Herman (1848) with black funnel and black
hull.
Drawing of 'Campania'
A port-side black and white drawing of Cunard vessel
Campania (1893) with paired funnels.
Drawing of 'Aquitania' (1914)
A port-side drawing of Cunard vessel 'Aquitania'
(1914), with bright camouflage paint, designed to make it hard to
gauge distance for torpedoes.
Drawing of Queen Elizabeth (1938)
A port-side drawing of Cunard vessel Queen Elizabeth
(1938), with red funnels, black hull and white
superstructure.
Drawing of Sagafjord (1964)
A port-side drawing of Cunard vessel Sagafjord (1964),
with red funnel, grey hull and white superstructure.
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