John Henry Sangster Coutts was a Scottish shipbuilding pioneer who built the first full-size iron ship and the first double bottomed ship.
John Coutts came from Aberdeen. He arrived on Tyneside in 1841. In 1842 he launched his first ship, the P.S. Prince Albert, the first full-sized iron ship.[1] He went on to launch the S.S. QED, the first ship to have a double-bottom.[1]
In 1848 he entered into a partnership with William Parkinson trading as Coutts & Parkinson.[1] He employed Dr Charles Mitchell, whose shipyard at Wallsend became the core of the Swan Hunter shipbuilding group, as his designer.