American engineer Stephen Piggott joined John Brown in 1908 to help build Curtis turbines under the Brown-Curtis name and later rose to managing director at Clydebank. The yard's machinery expertise and unusually strong American connections both mattered when it was selected to build Hood. No formal secrets had to change hands for the yard to give the Admiralty insight into American shipbuilding and American contacts a view of British standards. Britain's flexible ordering habits also differed from the longer American and Japanese programs: a deep industrial base allowed British planners to delay final commitments until technology had moved closer to the point of construction.
Notable Point · 40:28-43:16
How John Brown's American links informed British shipbuilding
Stephen Piggott's career at John Brown illustrates how people, turbine technology, and informal industrial knowledge crossed the Atlantic around Hood's construction.