Antoine Groignard

Antoine Groignard (4 February 1727 – 26 July 1799), was a French naval constructor who developed standard designs for French war ships, and built and improved the dry docks at the French naval bases in Toulon and Brest.

Family Groignard was son of a master mariner, admiralty pilot, hydrographer and shipowner. In 1767 he married Marie Élisabeth Catherine Boucher de la Boucherie, a daughter of a captain of troops in the service of the French East India Company. The couple had a son and a daughter; the son becoming a frigate captain in the French navy.

He retired due to sickness in 1790. He was recalled to duty in 1792 and was in charge of the construction of Port-de-Bouc from 1792 to 1795, and a project for draining the salt marshes of the Marignane in Saint-Miter from 1793 to 1794. Groignard was in charge of the naval administration of Toulon in preparation for the French campaign in Egypt and Syria.

Awards Groignard studied the stowage of ships and modified the positioning of the frames to increase its strength. In 1759 he was awarded the prize of the Academy of Sciences for a memoir on the solidity of vessels. In 1765, he won a prize from the Marine Academy with a memoir on the stowage of ships: "Mémoire sur l'arrimage des vaisseaux". Deputy member of this academy in 1752; full member 1769. Knight of the Order of Saint Louis 1775. Raised to nobility in 1780.

Legacy Rue Antoine Groignard is a street in Toulon named after him.