Robert H. Laverie
one of the best-known representatives of marine interests in this country is Robert H. Laverie, naval architect and marine engineer, who is also chief surveyor for the United States of the Bureau Veritas, of Paris, France.
Mr. Laverie has been connected with maritime interests during his entire business life. He was born in Glasgow, Scotland, and was brought up amid marine surroundings. When he was a boy his father became superintendent of the shipyards of G. T. Davie & Co., at Quebec, Canada. In that yard, after leaving school, Mr. Laverie began his training in naval architecture and marine engineering under his father. Later he left Quebec, and was for about fifteen months with the American Steel Barge Company at West Superior, Wis. After that he was, consecutively, five months with the Cramp Shipyard at Philadelphia, nine months with the Newport News Shipbuilding Company at Newport News, Va two and a half years with Herreshoff Company at Bristol, R. I one year with the Fore River Shipbuilding Company at Quincy, Mass one and a quarter years with the
Crescent Shipyard Company of Elizabeth, N. J., and from 1901 with the Townsend & Downey Shipbuilding Company, now the Shooters Island Shipyard Company, at Mariners Harbor, Staten Island, of which plant he became general manager.
His appointment as Chief Surveyor in the United States for the Bureau Veritas came on June 1, 1910. That society is one of the oldest and largest international organizations devoted to the classification, registry, inspection, and oversight of shipbuilding in all its phases, and is of highest authority upon the class, rig, tonnage, and rating of ships.
Mr. Laverie's administration of this important post has brought him into close connection with maritime affairs, and besides his connection with the Bureau Veritas he has a large consulting business as naval architect and marine engineer, and he also represents several of the most prominent American marine underwriters as marine expert
and appraiser.
At the beginning of the war, in 1914, Mr. Laverie was appointed in charge of the inspection and control of all French Government naval and merchant marine work in the United States and Canada. The most important feature of the work which devolves upon him in this connection is the entire financial and engineering supervision of the shipyards owned by the French Government and being operated by The Foundation Company.
Mr. Laverie has long been a resident of Mariners Harbor, Staten Island, New York, where he is known as a representative citizen. He is a director of the Mariners Harbor National Bank; president of the Richmond Borough Building and Loan Association, and a director of the North Shore Building and Loan Association, both of Staten Island. He is a member of the Maritime Association of New York, the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, the Whitehall Club, Twilight Club, and the Canadian Society of New York, and is popular in both social and professional relations
