Joseph Huddart (1741 - 1816) was a British navigator, sea captain, hydrographer, and businessman active in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Huddart was born in Allonby, Cumberland, England. His father was a tradesman who became part owner of a local fishery and herring processing company. Showing an early affinity for mathematics and mechanics Huddart trained as a sea captain along the Irish coast. Later he designed and built his own ship, the Patience with which he traded his father herring as far as the West Indies. In 1771 Sir Richard Hotham, a family friend and distant relative introduced Huddart to the East India Company. Huddart completed four voyages to the East Indies where he surveyed the coasts from India to Sumatra. Much of his work found its way into various published nautical charts issued in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Huddart retired from sailing around 1790. Afterwards he completed a navigational guide to China and New Holland which earned him a place in the Royal Society. Also, while residing in London Huddart devised a technique to improve the tensile strength of marine rope using an automated steam powered process. The processes earned an extraordinary fortune with which he acquired several estates in London and Wales. Huddart died at Highbury Terrance, London in 1816. He was 76 years old and survived by five sons.



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