Matthew Baker (1530-1613) was an English naval engineer. He is regarded as the first large theorist of the ships.

Professor of mathematics to Cambridge, it is the first to conceive ships while deviating from the oral tradition. In particular, its files comprise drawings of ships which show an effort of quotation. It also uses tables for construction but, seems it, not module. Its working papers were preserved and constitute an important source of information on the techniques of the time.

While taking as a starting point the animals, it will develop principles close to the Bionique. Its naval architecture results in a lowering of the strong of before and of back, a modification of the proportions and an evolution of the Gréement. Baker is attentive with the experiments of the corsairs like Francis Drake, Frobisher and Howard d' Effingham, which prefers fast and handy boats. The vessels of Baker, to the image of the “ Golden delicious Hind ” ordered by Francis Drake, slip by twice more quickly than the massive vessels of the Spaniards. At that time, any boat which returns in repair to the shipyards of Chatham is entirely transformed according to the plans of Mathew Baker.

The technique developped at the point by Matthew Baker dominated naval construction during two centuries and influenced all the types of European vessels. It allowed England to develop a maritime superiority which will be the precondition to the expansion of the British Empire