Hercules Linton

Hercules Linton, born on 1 January 1837 and died on 15 May 1900, was a Scottish surveyor, designer, shipbuilder, antiquarian and local councillor, best known as the designer of the clipper Cutty Sark. He was born in Inverbervie, Kincardineshire, and at nineteen was apprenticed to Alexander Hall and Sons, the leading shipbuilders in Aberdeen. He later became a Lloyd's Register surveyor in Liverpool and worked with the Liverpool Underwriters Registry. In May 1868 he formed the shipbuilding firm of Scott & Linton at Dumbarton with William Dundas Scott, managing design and shipbuilding while Scott ran the counting house. The firm built the Cutty Sark for John Willis but ran into cash flow trouble in 1869 and its work stopped. Linton afterwards worked for Gourlay Brothers and Leckie, Wood and Munro, was made a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland in 1876, and in 1895 was elected to the Inverbervie town council.