SHOCK, William Henry, naval officer, born in Baltimore. Md., 15 June, 1821. He entered the navy as 3d assistant engineer, 18 January, 1845, and served in the Mexican war. He was promoted 2d assistant engineer, 10 July; 1847, became 1st assistant engineer, 31 October, 1848, was senior engineer of the coast-survey steamer "Legaree " in 1849, and superintended the construction of the machinery of the steamer "Susquehanna" at Philadelphia in 1850-'1. He was promoted to chief engineer, 11 March, 1851, superintended the construction of the machinery of the steamer " Princeton" at Boston in 1851-'2, and, after a year's service as engineer inspector of United States mail steamers, made a cruise as chief engineer of the " Princeton" and superintended the construction of marine-engines at West Point, New York, in 1854-'5. He was president of the examining board of engineers in 1860-'2, after which he superintended the building of river monitors at St. Louis, Missouri, in 1862-'3. He was fleet-engineer under Admiral Farragut during the operations at Mobile, where he rendered valuable services, as also under Admiral Thatcher in 1863-'5. In the summer of 1870 he was temporarily appointed chief of the bureau of steam engineering, which post he filled again in 1871, and received the written thanks of the department for the efficient manner in which he had discharged the duties. In 1873 he went to Europe to inspect foreign dock-yards and to represent the bureau of steam engineering at the Vienna exhibition, and was appointed one of the American judges of award by the president. He was appointed engineer-in-chief of the navy, 3 March, 1877, in which capacity he served until 15 June, 1883, when he was retired. He has been for many years an active member of the Franklin institute of Philadelphia and a contributor to the journal of that institution. In 1868 he designed and constructed projectiles to have a rotary motion when fired from smoothbore guns, the experiments with which resulted satisfactorily. He has also invented and patented a relieving cushion for wire rigging for ships, which has been adopted in the navy (1869), a projectile for small arms, improving the efficiency of muskets (1870), and steam radiators and attachments for heating purposes (1874). He is the 'Steam Boilers, their Design, Construction, and Management" (New York, 1881). This became the text-book of the United States naval academy on the subject and is a standard work.