Napoleão João Baptista Level, Brazilian naval engineer (Ilhéus, Bahia State 20 November 1828 – Paris 1915)

From French parents

ACHIEVEMENTS  

The vessels that he designed and built are said to have unique and innovative features 

Designed about 45 ships

Constructed Ipiranga corvette, one of firsts in the world with screw propeller (1852-4)

Designed a distinct tower for monitor warships 

Built monitor warship Pará (1867) with the following innovations: armor-plated rotary conning tower with bulky gauge, propellant apparatus with 2 engines and 2 propellers and small load-draught

Built ironclad Sete de Setembro with fully metallic timbers

Proposed a simple solution for centering any ship over the keel blocks (1861)

Descripção das bóias empregadas no dique imperial para collocação dos navios sobre os picadeiros. Rev. Inst. Polytech. Brasileiro 1(1), 1867

Pioneered the practice of towing ship models to observe their buoyancy and behavior at sea in 1865 (later adopted by all major shipyards worldwide)

Information obtained from the article: Carvalho, Alvanir. Construindo modelos históricos. Rev. Maritima Brasileira p.111-4, 1998