Herreshoff #186903es Orion

"F. W. Wilson assistant Editor Ap-27, [19]26. ... The notable designs by John B. Herreshoff were Sprite 1860-61 built by himself and father ... Kelpie, 1864 - Sadie 1867 and Orion 1869. Ianthe 1870 and Fostine [sic, i.e. Faustine] 1873." (Source: Mystic Seaport Museum, L. Francis Herreshoff Collection, Box 16, Folder 13: Letter from N. G. Herreshoff to F. W. Wilson, Assistant Editor of the National Cyclopedia of American Biography, April 27, 1926.)

"In the year 1869, John had built for the Cooper Brothers of New York, ORION from his own model. Apparently, she was equally as fast or faster than SADIE, they being [of] equal length, but ORION a little narrower and [with] a lighter rig. I don't remember of sailing in this craft." (Source: Herreshoff, N. G. "Some of the Boats I Have Sailed In. " Written 1934. In: Pinheiro, Carlton J. (ed.). Recollections and Other Writings by Nathanael G. Herreshoff. Bristol, 1998, p. 48.)

"The yachts or boats modeled by J. B. are as follows:
... 'Orion,' 1869." (Source: Herreshoff, L. Francis. The Wizard of Bristol. The Life and Achievements of Nathanael Greene Herreshoff, together with An Account of Some of the Yachts he Designed. New York, 1953, p. 57.)

"... The Clytie [#186701es], champion of the second class sloops, lies at anchor at Bristol, R. I., with the Nimbus [#186805es] and Sadie [#186704es], and flies the champion pennant since last autumn. When that is taken from her she will be ready to try our New York built boats, and till the she will 'rest on her laurels.'
Her builder and owner, Mr. John B. Herreshoff, has been overhauling the Nimbus and building a new yacht to be called the Orion, for Mr. Thayer, of Hoboken. She will be nearly fifty feet on deck and built after the best model that 'the blind man'' can make. Like all his boats she will be deep, able and very fast, carrying piles of canvas, but carrying it safely and comfortably. In gales that would trouble many of our lighter boats to stagger under a reef. He expects to have the yacht finished in time to meet the fleet at New London on the 20th of May and return with them on the cruise. ... " (Source: Anon. "Yachting. The Season of 1869." New York Herald, May 9, 1869, p. 4.)

"In the yard and shops of Mr. John B. Herreshoff, where some thirty men are employed, there have been turned out within the last few weeks, completely fitted for use, four sailboats of about six tons each; while a fifth craft of the same dimensions is now nearly finished, beside a large number of small craft --- row boats --- have been built during the same time. ...
There is now on the stocks and nearly completed a sloop yacht [#186903es Orion] of thirty-five tons which will be launched on the 15th instant [June 15, 1869]. This yacht is for George A. Thayer, Esq., of the Atlantic Yacht Club, the whole workmanship of which is of a superior order, and it is expected that this will be the most successful yacht in point of speed, according to her size, ever built even by Mr. Herreshoff. ..." (Source: Anon. "Yacht and Boat Building." Bristol Phoenix, June 12, 1869, p. 2.)

"In the regatta at Stonington, on the 'Fourth,' [July 4, 1870] the Orion [#186903es], owned by Mr Thayer, of New York, and built by Mr John B Herreshoff, of this town, was the successful competitor gaining the prize of one hundred dollars. ... The first prize to centre-board boats in the first class, at the regatta in Boston on the 4th inst. [July 4, 1870], was given to the Sadie [#186704es], late ot this town. The first prize to keel boats was won by the Psyche [#186605es]. The first prize in the second class was given to the Violet [#186606es], the second to the Kelpie [#186403es], centre-boards. The first prize in the third class was given to the Posey [#186603es ex-Fannie I], the second to the Secret [#186408es], centre-boards. Those boots were all built by Mr. John B. Herreshoff, at his yard and shops in this town. ... At the regatta of the Eastern Yacht Club, of Marblehead, Mass., Tuesday [July 12, 1870], the Sadie [#186704es], of Boston, was the winning boat. Coming was second. The time of the Sadie was four hours and twenty-five minutes, and the Coming four hours thirty minutes and twenty-five seconds. Dexter Stone's Psyche [#186605es], another Herreshoff boat, although not in the race, came in next to the winner." (Source: Anon. "Local Tintypes." Bristol Phoenix, July 16, 1870, p. 2.)

"[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).)
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"[Item Transcription:] [Newspaper clipping that can be shown to be Anon. ('Quill' [George or Frederick Allen Gower]). 'A Yachting Letter. Our Special Correspondent at the Centennial Regatta. A Rhode Island Boy Whips the Fleet.' Providence Evening Press, June 26, 1876, p. 2:]
Williamsburg, L. I., June 24, 1876.
To The Editor of the Press: By good fortune and the courtesy of Mr. J.B. Herreshoff, the yacht builder of Bristol, your correspondent has been afforded the pleasure, not only of a unique excursion but of unusual facilities for witnessing the Centennial Regatta in New York harbor during the two days just past, and as the results of the second day's racing have been to give remarkable prominence and notoriety to a Rhode Island boat, invented, built and sailed by a Rhode Island man, your readers may be pleased to know some particulars of the affair, more than are furnished by the usual telegraphic channels.
In the first place the unique excursion to which I have referred was a voyage from Bristol to New York in one of the little Herreshoff steamers, the 'FLECHE [#17p],' forty-two feet long by six wide, carrying a party of four and towing another little steamer thirty-three feet long and five wide, built for Mr. E. A. Lawrence, of Bayside, Long Island [#22p Open Yacht with her machinery in the midlle]. This trip consumed two days --- from Bristol to Niantic, Conn., the first, and thence to the Navy Yard, Brooklyn, the second day, and may be called extraordinary running when one considers that it was all done by daylight, except the run from College Point through Hell Gate to the Navy Yard, which was made Wednesday evening before 10:30 o'clock. These little craft are fine sea boats, riding the heavy 'old swell' off Point Judith like corks and going along very dry.
The first day's regatta we were not particularly interested in, although it was a fine one, and some of the speediest boats in the country were among the contestants. Still, the New Yorkers were disappointed, because at least a round dozen of the smartest flyers of the yacht fleet did not put in an appearance. To the stranger, however, who only knew, or thought of, the boats which did enter, the sight was very interesting, some twenty-five of the beautiful craft starting, and with a fine, wholesail breeze, making a very pretty race. A dozen or more steamers, carrying large parties of excursionists (including the LONG BRANCH, WYOMING, MAGENTA, NEVERSINK and others) with brass bands aboard, accompanied the fleet, and the screeching of steam whistles as each of the early arrivals crossed the line at the finish was tremendous. The DREADNAUGHT carried off the prize for first-class schooners, the winner in the second class I have forgotten. The ARROW and the ORION [#186903es] were the winners respectively in the first and second class sloops; the ARROW, a peculiarly graceful and beautiful vessel, being the first of the fleet to arrive home.
The second day's race was for boats under fifteen tons, divided into four classes: First, large sloops which crowded the limit of fifteen tons very closely; second, sloops of a smaller size; third, sloops not over twenty-five feet, or thereabouts; and fourth, cat-rigged boats, carrying working sails. The 'AMARYLLIS,' which by a single leap has sprung into fame, was entered in the third class, and at the start was the last but two in a fleet of over thirty sail. The course was from the New York Club house on Staten Island to a stake-boat off Coney Island, thence back to a stake-boat off Bay Ridge, L. I., thence across the harbor to a stake-boat near Robbins Reef, and thence back to the start, and this course was to be sailed over twice. Our party, in the little Lawrence steamer [#22p], was late in leaving Brooklyn, so that we did not see the start, out we met the fleet just after the foremost boats had rounded the Coney Island stake-boat the first time. From that point until the finish, we kept pace with the fleet, running about from boat to boat, now ahead, watching the leaders, and then dropping back to see how the others were doing. In order to be able to do this, it is hardly necessary to say that the little launch which carried us was remarkably speedy. As a matter of fact, however, she behaved finely, and gave us the opportunity of seeing every point of an unusually interesting and well sailed race.
But I want to devote a paragraph or two specially to the performances of the 'AMARYLLIS' and her victory. As I said, she was almost the last boat off, the first starters being then nearly two miles ahead and running out for Coney Island, with a fair wind, rather light and puffy. When we came up with the fleet, the 'AMARYLLIS' had only passed a half-dozen or so of her nearest neighbors, thus bringing her well along towards the the centre of the fleet. But the wind freshened and she pulled down and passed one after another, until at the home stakeboat the first time, there were only nine or ten ahead of her. Of these, five were together in a bunch not over 500 feet ahead; then there was a gap of one-third to one-half a mile, and then the others were strung out, one behind the other over the next half mile. In less than ten minutes from passing the home stake, the AMARYLLIS had pushed by the bunch just ahead of her, and was leaping along by herself, steadily drawing up with the string of leaders. In half an hour more, Capt. Nat. had the pleasure of looking over his stern at all the fleet save one, the SUSIE S. of Brooklyn, and she was not over a quarter of a mile ahead.
But the breeze had increased to such an extent that the SUSIE S. in common with all the others, except one, couldn't carry it all, and they had to beg along with mainsail shaking a little to keep from turning wrong side up. That one was the AMARYLLIS, and it was amusing to notice the contrast. The other boats had racing crews of ten or fifteen men each, and a regular stone wall of sand bags piled up on the weather rail. The AMARYLLIS had no ballast of any sort, and only two men on board --- one of them a man almost totally blind --- and they sat there as comfortably as though taking a cruise for pleasure. Talk about her not being a pleasure boat! Why to watch the activity and excitement on the other boats every time they came about or changed their course one would have thought Mr. Herreshoff and his brother were the only men in the fleet who were taking any sort of pleasure or comfort whatever.
Before reaching the Bay Ridge stake boat the second time the SUSIE S. dropped into second place, and the AMARYLLIS, as though she had been playing before, but was determined to show now what she could do, flew along like a race horse, opening the gap astern of her at the rate of about one foot in four. For the remainder of the race she had the course to herself, and crossed the line a little over five minutes ahead of the second boat, and ten minutes ahead of the third, while the balance of the fleet occupied the rest of an hour in coming in.
This result caused the utmost astonishment among the yachtsmen. During the early part of the race, they were inclined to smile gently when they looked toward their comical from a yachtsman's point of view neighbor. But as he passed successively from the position of neighbor to that of leader, smiles gave way to looks of disgust, and as soon as they could get in, the captains of several of the other boats in the third class, entered protests, which were referred to the Regatta Committee for decision. The ground of the protest is that 'she is neither a yacht nor a boat.' Oh lame and important conclusion! They all had abundant chance to see her the day before, but not a protest was heard till she had beaten them all. They may deny her the bit of parchment, which would be a lasting memento of her victory, but the victory itself they cannot deny her. The New York dailies published full reports of that, and one of them, the World, extends its editorial commiseration to the defeated fleet.
A curious, and somewhat amusing feature of the whole affair, is the surprise elicited on all hands. Even the yachting reporters of the N. Y. press hardly knew how to write about it, much less describe the boat accurately; and they were obliged to draw largely on their imagination for terms and names. I was amused at the names they called her --- Catamaran, Bolsa, Proa of the Ladrone Islands, and then dropping into Webster, nondescript, racing machine, monstrosity, yachting wonder, sea monster, mysterious stranger, ice boat, life raft and cigar boat, are a few of them, and one imaginative reporter was reminded of a circus rider flying along on two horses.
Altogether, there has probably been no event in yachting annals, of late years at any rate, that has excited so much comment and astonishment, and there is also a practical element in it. Several applications have been made to buy the AMARYLLIS, and one gentleman from New York is already negotiating with Mr. H.
for the building of a larger size craft of the same description.
Mr. H. started from Brooklyn, this morning, to sail his nondescript craft home again, in the same manner that he took her to New York, and with the reputation she has now acquired, I doubt not that a visit to Providence with her would gratify the curiosity of many of your citizens, and, by the way, as bringing the credit of the victory a little nearer home, let me say that Mr. H. is a member of the Providence Yacht Club, and the AMARYLLIS is enrolled on the books of the club fleet. [This anonymous letter is signed only 'Quill', but an original copy of this newspaper article in the Halsey C. Herreshoff Collection at the Herreshoff Museum shows the name 'Gower' added in ink besides 'Quill', suggesting that it was written by George or Frederick Allen Gower for whom N. G. Herreshoff would subsequently design and build the very successful catboat #187702es GLEAM.]" (Source: Providence Evening Press (creator). Newspaper Clipping. Halsey C. Herreshoff Collection at the Herreshoff Marine Museum Item MRDE14_01230. Folder [no #]. 1876-06-26.)
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Note: This list of archival documents contains in an unedited form any and all which mention #186903es Orion even if just in a cursory way. Permission to digitize, transcribe and display is gratefully acknowledged.

• Orion
• 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: Orion
Type: 49' 2" [sic, length is probably after lengthening in 1875] sloop
Owner: C. W. & G. C. Cooper
Year: 1869
Row No.: 498

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.

"Note Mystic Seaport Museum Collection: SP.1966.80.49.20. Plans set (1 sheet of plans for 54.5 ft. sloop, ORION (built 1869), designed by John B. Herreshoff. Date of design is unknown.) ORION: Sloop. Herreshoff, John B.; Schock, Edson I." (Source: van der Linde, Claas. May 2, 2008.)

"In the absence of better available data displacement was estimated by using the figure for New Measurement Tons (20.95) from the 1875 Manning's Yachting Annual (Old Measurement Tons were reported as 42 by 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.