Cox & Stevens began in 1905 as a yacht design and commercial brokerage in New York City. The original principal partners were Daniel H. Cox, Irving Cox, and marine engineer Colonel Edwin Augustus Stevens Jr., son of renowned designer Edwin Augustus Stevens. Daniel Cox was also in partnership with

William Francis Gibbs William Francis Gibbs (August 24, 1886 – September 6, 1967) was an American naval architect of the mid twentieth century. Though he began his career as an attorney, after World War I, he became recognized as a skilled project manager in th ...

. After the company reorganized in 1932, the firm of Gibbs & Cox, Inc., took on the larger commercial work, while Cox & Stevens continued the yacht design and smaller military and commercial projects. During World War II, the military portion of the firm's work expanded. For a while there were close to 500 designers working on vessels for the two-ocean war that required combat, transport, and supply vessels of many sizes. Philip Rhodes joined Cox & Stevens in 1934, and became head naval architect for the firm, after the death of head designer, Bruno Tornroth in 1935. After World War II, in 1947, Cox & Stevens was renamed Philip L. Rhodes Naval Architects and Marine Engineers and continued to do a great deal of commercial and military work. The firm closed in 1974 after Rhodes died.

Notable Cox & Stevens designs

* ''Lotosland'' (yacht) for

Edward A. Deeds Edward Andrew Deeds (March 12, 1874 – July 1, 1960) was an American engineer, inventor and industrialist prominent in the Dayton, Ohio, area. He was the president of the National Cash Register Company and, together with Charles F. Kettering, ...

, first to incorporate aircraft capability * US Army ferry * US Army ferry * * * * (formerly

Irving T. Bush Irving Ter Bush (July 12, 1869 – October 21, 1948) was an American businessman. He was the son of the wealthy industrialist, oil refinery owner, and yachtsman Rufus T. Bush. As founder of the Bush Terminal Company, Bush was responsible for t ...

's and

Marian Spore Bush Marian Spore Bush (born Flora May Spore, October 22, 1878 – February 24, 1946) was an American dentist, painter, and wife of industrial tycoon Irving T. Bush. She left her successful Michigan dental practice for a studio in Greenwich Villa ...

's ''Coronet'')
USCGC ''Arbutus''
* ''Mandalay'' (formerly

E. F. Hutton EF Hutton was an American stock brokerage firm founded in 1904 by Edward Francis Hutton and his brother, Franklyn Laws Hutton. Later, it was led by well known Wall Street trader Gerald M. Loeb. Under their leadership, EF Hutton became one of th ...

's ''Hussar IV'') *''

Sea Cloud ''Sea Cloud'' is a sailing cruise ship owned by Sea Cloud Cruises of Hamburg, Germany. Launched as a private yacht as ''Hussar V'' for Marjorie Merriweather Post in 1931, she later served as a weather ship for the United States Coast Guard and U ...

(formerly

's Hussar V)'' *''Southern Cross'' 425 foot motor yacht (Howard Hughes) *''Seawanhaka'' (schooner) *''Virginia'' (schooner) *''Vamarie'' (ketch) *

Rhodes 19 The Rhodes 19 is an American trailerable day sailer or sailing dinghy, that was designed by Philip Rhodes as a one-design racer and first built in 1958.Sherwood, Richard M.: ''A Field Guide to Sailboats of North America, Second Edition'', pa ...

* ''Dickenson'', supply and personnel transport cable-repair ship of the

Commercial Pacific Cable Company Commercial Pacific Cable Company was founded in 1901, and ceased operations in October 1951. It provided the first direct telegraph route from America to the Philippines, China, and Japan. The company was established as a joint venture of three c ...

based in Honolulu serving cable stations at Midway and

Fanning Island Tabuaeran, also known as Fanning Island, is an atoll that is part of the Line Islands of the central Pacific Ocean and part of Kiribati. The land area is , and the population in 2015 was 2,315. The maximum elevation is about 3 m (10 f ...

. War service as USS ''Kailua'' (IX-71).

Notable employees

* Eugene Turenne Gregorie

Notes

References

First Family of Inventors
History of the Stevens family
Cox and Stevens Collection
Mystic Seaport Museum
Records of Phillip L. Rhodes
Mystic Seaport Museum *Spurr, Daniel, Heart of Glass, McGraw Hill, 2000 pg 101 *Henderson, Richard, Philip L. Rhodes and His Yacht Designs, International Marine Publishing, 1981 *The Encyclopedia of Yacht Designers, by Lucia Del Sol Knight (Editor), Daniel Bruce MacNaughton (Editor) W. W. Norton & Company 2005 *The Golden Century: Classic Motor Yachts, 1830–1930, by Ross Mactaggart, W. W. Norton & Company 2001 {{DEFAULTSORT:Cox and Stevens American yacht designers Yacht design firms