Model No. 706: Columbia Lifeboat

Model by: NGH
Made when: July 1899 (?)
Stated model scale: 1/12
Model length (ca.): 14.4" (36.5cm)
Implied vessel LOA at 1/12 (ca.): 14' 5" (4.4m)
Power/Sail: P/S
Vessel Type: Columbia Electric Launch (5); Columbia Power Tender (20); Columbia Rowboat (121); Columbia Sailing Dinghy (43); Columbia Dinghy (12); Columbia Lifeboat (10)
Hull Configuration: Unknown (39); No centerboard (126); Centerboard (46)
Model location: H.M.M. Model Room North Wall Right

Vessels from this model:
211 built, modeled by NGH

Original text on model:
"Original COLUMBIA lifeboat for 499 14' [long] scale 1/12 Nov. 1899 gig for #503 506, 507 [unreadable] (cut dinghy 520 16x14 7 1/2" frames dinghy for 624 scale 10 3.4 over 16 * 10-8 [unreadable] / 529, 532, 533, 534 16x14 add-on bow changed and shear raised remeasured Dec. 4, 1909. Boats for 692 and later" (Source: Original handwritten annotation on model. Undated.)

Model description:
"14' lifeboat of 1899 for the cutter Columbia. Also used, with alterations to scale, mold spacing, freeboard, and with sailing rig added, for many other rowboats, sailing dinghies, and tenders. This shape became HMCo's standard for decades to follow." (Source: Bray, Maynard. 2004.)

Model discussion:
"A good small sailing dinghy to be used for a yacht's tender should have the following features:
1. She should row easily both when light and loaded.
2. Be light enough to hoist aboard easily.
3. Be stiff enough to get into and out of easily.
4. Be so constructed that she will not leak and still will be able to stand some abuse.
5. Last, but not least, she should tow steadily, always holding back on her painter and never yawing around.
... the dinghy which has a well rounded-off forefoot, together with a small nicely tucked-up transom, will tow through almost anything. Her quick lines aft will make her stand right up on her stern and hold back steadily on the painter. Perhaps if I give you a slight review of some of the types of rowboats my father designed it will explain the development of the American yacht tender, for his tenders were copied by most of the best boat builders.
... While [the Coquina] model was generally well liked, my father saw that it could be much improved for towing, so soon after 1900 he brought out a model which we in the rowboat shop used to call the Columbia Lifeboat model. The first of these was the racing boat on the deck of the cup boat Columbia ... and a very great many similar ones were built. Perhaps my father modeled ten row-boats of varying proportions after the Columbia Lifeboat model, but he never departed radically from this shape. This is the best model for a tender I have ever seen. They row well, sail well, are good dry sea boats, and will tow through anything. From that time on, what with the advent of the outboard motor, the small yacht tender has gone backward, so that many today do not even know what a good tender is like." (Source: Herreshoff, L. Francis. The Common Sense of Yacht Design. Vol. II. New York, 1948, p. 139-140.)

"A. S. deW. Herreshoff: ... The COLUMBIA model is this here ... At first that was the sheer line and later on it was raised.
Thomas: The dinghy that went with COLUMBIA had the lower sheer?
A. S. deW. Herreshoff: [Yes.]" (Source: Herreshoff, A. Sidney deW. [Excerpts from the transcript of an oral interview held with Barry Thomas and Maynard Bray, both Mystic Seaport Museum.] Bristol, R.I., October 15, 1975, p. 7.)

Comment:
"Note that the plan dates for this model (June 1899 for plan 18-16 and August 1899 for plan 18-18) are earlier than November 1899, the month when this model is said to have been made." (Source: van der Linde, Claas. May 14, 2009.)