Herreshoff #186702es Fannie II [Fanny]

"Fannie 2nd [#186702es]: 22ft 9in Length on deck. 21ft 5in Length on water. 9ft Breadth extreme. 2ft 10in Depth. 3 3/8in Deadrise per foot. 6ft 6in Width of stern. 10 1/2in Sheer. 2ft 11in Freeboard [at] bow. 1ft 8in Freeboard [at] stern. 1ft 4in Freeboard [at] lowest place. No bowsprit. 29ft Mainsail foot. 24ft Mainsail hoist. 12ft 9in Mainsail head. 37ft Mainsail leech. 575sqft Mainsail area. No jib. No gafftopsail. No jibtopsail." (Source: Herreshoff, N.G. and/or other Herreshoff family members. Handwritten table listing early Herreshoff-built boats and their dimensions up to 1870. No date (1870 or later). Halsey C. Herreshoff Collection at the Herreshoff Marine Museum, MRDE03.)

"In the fall of 1866, I made a new design of a 21' boat for Captain Gibbs, FANNIE 2nd. FANNIE 2nd proved very fast and beat the famous WIDE AWAKE, [which was] what Captain Gibbs wanted to do. The two sloops, 35' oa. [sic] were very satisfactory craft." (Source: Herreshoff, N. G. "Boats and Yachts that I have been Especially Interested in by Sailing and Some of Which I Have Owned." Bristol, April 1932. In: Pinheiro, Carlton J. (ed.). Recollections and Other Writings by Nathanael G. Herreshoff. Bristol, 1998, p. 103.)

"FANNIE I, not quite fulfilling her mission of beating the famous WIDE AWAKE, Captain Gibbs ordered another boat to take her place, and I designed FANNIE II. The name of FANNIE I was changed to POSY. I also m[ade] the model for CLYTIE, a thirty-five and one-half foot overall, thirty-two and one-half foot waterline sloop, to be built for John's own use. Each of these three boats [was built] early in the season of 1867, and each was a successful winner in its class." (Source: Herreshoff, N. G. "The Old Tannery and My Brother John." Written July 28, 1933. In: Pinheiro, Carlton J. (ed.). Recollections and Other Writings by Nathanael G. Herreshoff. Bristol, 1998, p. 23.)

"Miscellaneous. --- One of the most peculiar experiments of the season is being made by Messrs. Dean, of the Boston Yacht Club. They intend putting a sheet-iron or funnel mast in their sloop Fannie, for the purpose of getting less weight forward. Their wooden stick weighs about three hundred and twenty pounds, and they expect to get about one hundred pounds less weight forward by making use of the iron funnel: Whether it will stand the weather remains yet to be proved. The base of the mast will be, as usual, solid wood up to about three feet from the deck, when the funnel will commence." (Source: Anon. "Intercommunication." Hunt's Yachting Magazine, September 1872, p. 502.)

"... "AS I were a-tellin' you fellers t'other day," resumed the marine oracle, as he took his favorite seat on Hutchings' pier, "there used to be some hot old racin' among the boats under 25 feet hereabouts.
"Between the years 1870 to 1880, more excitin' races were sailed among the 21-foot catboats than in any other class. The class went up to 25 feet, but in them days they didn't think so much of 'buildin' up to the limits as they do now, and every new boat was built about the same length as the Fanny, 21 feet and 3, 4 or 6 inches on the waterline. Sometimes a boat like the Eureka would come in, which were built longer, but mostly they thought it wasn't fair to beat a fellow with a bigger boat, and if anyone wanted to beat any particular boat he most likely would build a boat as near as he could to the same length. Another thing was they didn't have it very clear in their own heads whether 'twas better to give or take allowance, and most of the bigger boats had pretty lively scratchin' to give the Fanny anytime.
"Durin' these years the Fanny was undoubtedly the fastest boat in that class. She was a Herreshoff boat, built, I believe, in '67, and owned by Ben Dean, who now owns the Undine. The Fanny had a swingein' big mainsail, but she could carry it off pretty well, and her skipper wasn't afraid of reefin' when the boat needed it. In a strong smoky sou'wester the Fanny would always come out to the line with a double reef tied down, while some of the others would try to stagger along with one reef, while some of them would bite off their own heads by draggin' whole sail."
"The Fanny had a big hollow mast. It were a dandy, and she carried for 10 years or more without any trouble. Thev used to wrap it every spring with fine bank-note paper, and altogether it were a pretty expensive bit of furniture, but she was winning all the time, and Ben Dean didn't mind the expense.
"To hear those young fellers talkin' about Gineral Paine usin' battens in his sails, you'd think they was a new thing, but
The Fanny Always had battens in her mainsail. She had a cur'us rollin' leach, and some days when they left the battens out you'd see her comin' to windward like a streak, that old leach rollin' and flappin', but her a-gettin' there just the same. Another wrinkle on the Fanny was in carryin' a tops'l in light wind, which none of the other catboats seemed to get onto.
"The Fanny always had the reputation of bein' awful fast off the wind, but I could never see why she wasn't just as good to windward. Give her a breeze on the quarter and she'd run like a scared hog, and nothin' could touch her. But I never seed anv of 'em gain much on her when they pulled to windward. She didn't point so awful high as some, but she kept movin' all the time and she gen'ally finished just as far ahead as she'd been when they started to windward, and most often a good deal further.
"Tom Dean was called one of the best skippers in them days. He had as fine a hand on a tiller or wheel as any man living, and he got lots of speed out of a good many boats including the two Wanderers, owned by the Russ brothers, and the Rebie and others. But Tom used to say that his nephew Walter [Walter Lofthouse Dean, artist (1854-1912) could sail the Fanny better than he could, and Walter was the regular skipper of the Fanny. They always had a good crew, and when shiftin' ballast was allowed the old Fanny would turn to windward agin' a smoky sou'wester in a way that would dazzle you.
"As I were a-sayin', it seems as if we used to get heavier winds Fourth o'July days than we git now. The Fanny could beat 'em all, light or heavy, but she was best in a double reefer. The old square-sided Riipple was a good boat when it blowed hard. They used to get old Macomber and three or four other heavyweights up on the Hippie's weather-rail, and she could carry a single reefed mainsail when the Fanny would have to tie in a double. Once in a while, the Ripple would finish ahead, but she had to give the Fanny a little time allowance. Seems to me I remember once when the prize was given to the Fanny by two-tenths of a second corrected time. That were considered awful close figuring in them days.
"They used to give some prizes that was prizes then, and I've seen the time when the Fanny lugged off $30 for her day's work. But most of her crew were hired and they all got $5 a man and some of the men as went in the Fanny got $10 and $I5, so there wasn't so much money in it, even with the big prizes.
"Most of the Fanny's winnin' was owin' to the set of her sail and good handlin', though of course she had a fine model too.
She used the same mainsail for 10 or a dozen years. They got a new one once, but it didn't set like the old one, and they kept the old sail on her, even when it got so old it had to be patched. It was a tremendous mainsail, with a long boom and gaff, and it used to take careful steerin' to keep that mainboom out of the water when she was runnin' off with the wind on the quarter with a good breeze and a choppv sea.
"About the first boat the Fanny had to tackle was the Posy, another Herreshoff cat of the same length. I believe the Fanny was built the next year after the Posy, and built to beat her, which she did. The Burgess boys had the Posy, and while they had her it was a stand-off between the two in races, but after the Burgesses sold her the Posy never could beat the Fanny.
"The Burgess boys of Beverly used to have a good many boats in them days. At first they used to get Herreshoff boats, but after-wards they got to goin' to Pierce brothers of City Point. Both Herreshoff and Pierce turned out some very fast boats, and it was hard to say which was the best builder.
"Some of the best of the Pierce boats were the cat-rigs Queen Mab, Firfly, Fearless, Mabel, Water Witch, Ibis, Holden Niobe, Fancy, Mirage and Psyche, while they built a number of crack sloops among 'em the Sea Bird, Rebie, Wanderer, Eva, Kitty and Pearl.
"Herreshoff in them days was turning out some fine catboats, the Posy, Fanny, Maud, Bristol, Peri, Ruby, Virginia, Dandelion, Pansy and Tulip, bein' a few of his that used to carry off a good many prizes.
"Early in the '70s, the Fanny, Posy, Queen Mab and Firefly used to get together quite often, racing at ties in the Beverly club and quite often in Dorchester. ...
The Firefly had the reputation of being faster than the Fanny in heavy weather, but I guess that was because she had a smaller sail. The Posy was a good all round boat, but, she never was quite so fast as the Fanny while the Allens owned her.
"In a good reefin' breeze, it used to be about like this. The Fanny would finish first, then half a mile behind her would come the Ripple. Then another half mile astern, would follow the Posy or some other boat, and the rest all strung out behind. The Eureka, a sloop a couple of feet longer, used to give the Fanny a leetle more'n she could do in heavy weather, but old Fuller, that owned the Eureka didn't have enough money to keen his boat up, so after a year or two she stopped racin'. ...
Tom Dean used to get a good deal of speed out of the Rebie early in the seventies, and could beat about everything except the Fanny. When he got out of her to go in the Wanderer they put more sail on the Rebie and put in more ballast, and she never went so well alterwards. Tom Dean got the first Wanderer so she could beat about everything, and the Fanny was the only boat he was afraid of.
"You young fellows may think I'm full of the Fanny, but I tell you no catboat round these parts has ever held up her end the way that boat did. She was handled so slick too. I remember one race where the boats had to go up to Cow Pasture buoy first. It was a light east wind, making it a run on the quarter up there. The tide was flood, and the windward end of the line was the best for every reason --- leastwise, that's what everybody thought --- and the whole gang crowded up around the windward flag. From that point they could get the wind-ward position and a stronger tide with them. But the Fanny quietly went off to the very leeward end of the line, and dropped her anchor all alone.
"When the gun fired there was a great snarl among the windward boats. They fouled in getting away, then they luffed each other out of their courses. The Fanny went off about her own business. She had a clear course. and she was so far to leeward that nobody bothered her wind much. As the leading boats got near the buoy one or two were still ahead of the Fanny, but they had luffed so far out of their course that they had to bear away before the wind, where their balloon jibs wouldn't draw. The Fanny came cutting up to the buoy with her balloon-jib drawing nicely, and remained with a clear lead over everybody. She never was bothered in the whole race, and won easily.
"Ah, hum, I suppose I'd sit here talkin' all day of anybody'd listen to mo. Look-a-here, young Idler." said the old mariner, suddenly, as he noticed a small note book in the reporter's hand, which the latter hastily shoved back into his vest pocket, "don't vou go to printin' none o' my yarns in the paper. Ye see, these things happened from 10 to 20 years ago, and may be I've got some of 'em twisted by this time," and the old man shook his cane at the innocent-looking scribe, who was at that moment gazing out to sea with a far-away look in his eyes.
WATER LINE." (Source: Anon ("Water Line.") "City Point Yachting. Great Record Made by Catboat Fanny." Boston Globe, February 2, 1890, p. 10.)

"Walter Lofthouse Dean (1854-1912). ... there was another group of artists who were prominent members of the Gloucester colony, but who are not well known today. Among them were Walter Lofthouse Dean and Augustus Waldeck Buhler. Dean was in fact one of the earliest members of the colony. In 1885 he outfitted the large sailing yacht Undine to serve as a floating studio, and he anchored it in the harbor when he was not cruising in search of maritime subjects. Dean’s many paintings of Gloucester harbor and his depiction of the rugged men who fished the Grand Banks achieved popular success for the artist, but only recently have scholars and the public come to appreciate them once again. ... Dean’s own life represented something of the struggle to escape the dreariness of industrial labor in the factory cities of New England. He was born of middle-class parents in the industrial town of Lowell, Massachusetts, although the family moved to Boston when he was still a child. On his fifteenth birthday his father gave him a Herreshoff catboat that he named Fannie. Dean proved to be an adept sailor, winning many local races, and it was at this time that his enduring love of the sea was born. ... In 1885 he moved to Gloucester, where he made a considerable impression with his sailing studio, the Undine. He spent a few months crewing as a common seaman on the Grand Banks and filling his notebooks with ideas for pictures. In 1886 he settled into a studio in Boston’s Pemberton Square, where he could look out over the waterfront. The next year he had his first major exhibition at the Boston Art Club. The Boston Herald noted that 'Mr. Dean knows boats as well as a surgeon knows anatomy, and consequently his craft would sail in any weather.' ... J. G. S. [J.Gray Sweeney]" (Source: Belanger, Pamela J. "Maine in America: American Art at the Farnsworth Art Museum." Rockland, Maine, 2000.)

"[Item Description:] Handwritten (in ink and pencil) table providing what amounts to be the earliest Herreshoff construction record with detailed dimensional data (Name, Owner, Length on deck, Length on water, Breadth extreme, Depth, Deadrise per foot, Width of stern, Sheer, Freeboard at bow, stern and lowest place, Centreboard length, Centreboard from woodends, Centre of mast from woodends, Bowsprit out board, Mainsail foot, hoist, head, leech, and area, Foresail foot, hoist, head, leech, and area, Jib foot, hoist, leech, and area, Gafftopsail foot, luff, leech, and area, Fore-gafftopsail foot, luff, leech, and area, Jibtopsail foot, hoist, leech, and area and Notes ) for Julia [#185602es], Sprite [#186001es], Kelpie 1st [#186301es], Magic [#186404es], Toad [#186411es], Prudence [#186406es], Patience [#186405es], Hope [#186402es], Faith [#186401es], Qui Vive [#186407es], Kelpie 2nd [#186403es], Teazer [#186410es], Secret [#186408es], Fish Boats [#186505es, #186506es, #186507es, #186508es, #186509es, #186510es, #186511es, #186512es], Fish Boats [#186513es, #186514es, #186515es, #186516es, #186517es, #186518es], Fanchon [#186501es], Angie [#186503es], Haidee [#186604es], Ariel [#186601es], Psyche [#186605es], Fannie 1st [#186603es], Violet [#186606es], Fish Boats [#186607es, #186608es], Fish Boats [#186609es, #186610es, #186611es, #186612es, #186613es, #186614es], Lively Whale [later Daisy ???] [#186707es ???], Fannie 2nd [#186702es], Hartford [later Polly ???] [#186703es ???], Sadie [#186704es], Clytie [#186701es], Waterfall [N/A], Bristol [#186801es], Ione [#187003es], Poppasquash [#186502es], Etta [N/A], Oysterboats [#186710es, #186711es], Spring Green [#186709es], Pellican [#186708es], Henrietta [N/A], Meteor [N/A], Fatter[?] [N/A], Annie Moies [#1p], Charlotte [#186803es], Annie [#186905es], Hildegard [#186808es], Thetis [#186705es], Clio [#187101es], Fleetwing [N/A], White Straw[?] [N/A], [Mignone] [#186904es], Fish Boats [square stern, 1868] [N/A], Sadie [#N/A (dupl. listing)], Fannie [N/A], Bunsby [#186802es], Orion [#186903es], Breeze [N/A], Nimbus [#186805es], Alice [crossed out, this MIGHT be Bessie] [#187001es], Viking [#187008es], [Ianthe] [#187002es], [Surf] [#187007es], [Georgie Miller] [#187011es], and [Pink] [#187010es]. Undated, the latest vessel on the list was built in 1870." (Source: Herreshoff, N.G. (?) (creator) or other Herreshoff family members (?) (creator). Construction Record. Halsey C. Herreshoff Collection at the Herreshoff Marine Museum Item MRDE03_01410. Folder [no #]. No date (ca 1870).)
① ② ③ ④ ⑤ ⑥

Note: This list of archival documents contains in an unedited form any and all which mention #186702es Fannie II [Fanny] even if just in a cursory way. Permission to digitize, transcribe and display is gratefully acknowledged.

• Grayson, Stan. Herreshoff Catboats. The Roots of a Boatbuilding Dynasty." Wooden Boat #289, November/December 2022, p. 58-67. (1,855 kB)
  Document is copyrighted: Yes. Detailed, well-written story about Herreshoff catboats, from early boats such as Sprite and the four Julias which were all built before the founding off the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company to the numerous small catboats like Dandelion and Bluebell, many of which were delivered to Boston yachtsmen and most of which were also built before the founding of HMCo to the later, often very extreme and rule-beating catboats such as Wanda. With some minor errors, not all Julias were keelboats, Dexter Stone was from Philadelphia and not just a local yachtsman, Peri was not built for W. Starling Burgess, and Bluebell was built for Ed. Burgess with no proof that this was Edward Burgess.

• Fannie II
• Fannie II
• Note: The L. Francis Herreshoff index cards comprise a set of some 1200 cards about vessels built by HMCo, with dimensions and / or ownership information. Apparently compiled in the early 1930s, for later HMCo-built boats like the Fishers Island 23s or the Northeast Harbor 30s are not included. Added to in later decades, apparently by L. F. Herreshoff as well as his long-time secretary Muriel Vaughn and others. Also 46 cards of L. F. Herreshoff-designed vessels. The original set of index cards is held by the Herreshoff Marine Museum and permission to display is gratefully acknowledged.

Name: Fannie II
Type: 21' 7"
Owner: Captain Gibbs
Year: 1867
Row No.: 220

Source: Herreshoff, L. Francis. "Partial List of Herreshoff-Built Boats." In: Herreshoff, L. Francis. Capt. Nat Herreshoff. The Wizard of Bristol. New York, 1953, p. 325-343.

"Fannie I 1866 and Fannie II 1867 are listed simultaneously in 1890/1891 Yacht List and 1896 Who Won." (Source: van der Linde, Claas. May 2, 2008.)

"In the absence of better available data displacement was estimated by using the figure for Old Measurement Tons (5.5) from the 1872 Fox Yachting Annual and converting to lbs by dividing through 2000 (short tons). Note that this figure can only be a rough estimate because register tons as reported in Yacht Registers correlate only loosely with actual displacement figures." (Source: van der Linde, Claas. March 17, 2015.)

Note: Research notes contain information about a vessel that is often random and unedited but has been deemed useful for future research.