John Leather (1928–2006)
John Leather was a naval architect, boat designer and maritime historian whose working life and writing were closely tied to the Essex rivers. Born in Liverpool, he moved to Fingringhoe with his family in 1935. He studied mechanical engineering at Colchester Technical College and naval architecture in evening classes at Wivenhoe’s Nottage Institute. He then served a five-year draughtsman apprenticeship at Rowhedge Ironworks; an account of a Mersea regatta visit in 1948 places him among the young Essex sailing crews of the period.
Leather designed the Rowhedge shrimper Laura Bruce in 1952, qualified as a naval architect in 1953 and joined Lloyd’s Register in 1959. In 1979 he became Technical Secretary of the Royal Institution of Naval Architects, retiring in 1994. His professional work on large steel ships sat alongside a lifelong interest in traditional wooden vessels, their lines and the people who sailed them.
Books and traditional boats
Leather’s first book, Gaff Rig, appeared in 1970; Clinker Boatbuilding followed in 1973 and The Salty Shore in 1979. He wrote seventeen books and became a regular contributor to Classic Boat, beginning with an article about East Coast working boats in its second issue in spring 1987. His writing drew on ship plans, older specialist publications, personal interviews and his own experience of working and sailing small craft.
Leather owned and sailed small traditional craft, including the West Mersea One Design KALI, later called BUZZING BEE. He and his wife Doris lived in West Mersea from 1983 to 1986, then returned to Fingringhoe. His family links reached back to the Rowhedge Barnard and Cranfield seafaring families.
Plans, photographs and research
The John Leather Memorial Collection preserves his maritime books, vessel plans, photographs and papers. His research includes material on the East Coast oyster smacks, barges and working boatyards covered elsewhere in Mersea Talk's working-boats history.