Model No. 19: Oppossum and Oleander

Model by: NGH
Made when: February 1897
Model length (ca.): 25.5" (64.8cm)
Power/Sail: S
Vessel Type: Sloop
Hull Configuration: Keel&Centerboard
Model location: H.M.M. Model Room East Wall

Vessels from this model:
2 built, modeled by NGH

Original text on model:
"OPPOSSUM #484 February 1887 Scale of length 10/11 times 1/12 breadth and depth 1/12
OLEANDER #710 July 1911 Raised length 10/11 times 1/12 ditto for breadth and depth" (Source: Original handwritten annotation on model. Undated.)

Model description:
"#484 Oppossum, 17' lwl fin-keel [sic, i.e. centerboard] sloop of 1897. Also, with modifications, #710 Oleander, 20' lwl sloop of 1911." (Source: Bray, Maynard. 2004.)

Model discussion:
"A.S. deW. Herreshoff: ... the first boat [N. G. Herreshoff] took to Bermuda [was] OLEANDER. And the original boat with the lower sheer I think was built for Bob Emmons when he was a young man. He used the same model with a higher freeboard for the OLEANDER and he found she wasn't quite rugged enough for the winter winds in Bermuda so next year he built the ALERION." (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. 12.)