Model No. 112: Pelican and Gannet

Model by: NGH
Made when: September 1890 (ca.)
Stated model scale: 1/16
Model length (ca.): 28.0" (71.1cm)
Implied vessel LOA at 1/16 (ca.): 37' 4" (11.4m)
Power/Sail: S
Vessel Type: Catyawl
Hull Configuration: Keel
Model location: H.M.M. Model Room South Wall Left

Vessels from this model:
2 built, modeled by NGH

Original text on model:
"Copy of Model #408 & 409 Made in the fall of 1890 PELICAN AND GANNET Scale 1/16 except 409 length increased 12 to 13
The original model given to Mr. E. D. Morgan N.G.H. Aug. 9 1926" (Source: Original handwritten annotation on model. Undated.)

Model description:
"26'6" lwl Pelican, keel cat-yawl of 1891. Also, by a slight increase in scale length, the 29'6" lwl Gannet, a near sister of the same year." (Source: Bray, Maynard. 2004.)

Model discussion:
"It is awfully good of you to send me the model [of #408s PELICAN] at all, but really I think it is a shame to send your perfect model away from your collection. I would be perfectly satisfied with the one with pitch spots and be very grateful for it. I would suggest sending it by express. [HMM's model of PELICAN clearly shows pitch spots]." (Source: Morgan, E.D. Letter to N.G. Herreshoff. August 25, 1926. In HMM Collection, Correspondence, Folder 77 (new), 62 (old).

"Perhaps Mr. Morgan and Captain Nat were interested in the effect a change of length would make on yachts built on the same molds, but as Captain Nat always spoke of this model as the 'Pelican,' I will continue to do so now, and may do so at some length as she was really the model, or development boat, from which the 'Gloriana' was evolved, and has been overlooked by other writers who would suggest that Captain Nat jumped in one leap from steam to sail, or the 'Gloriana.'
At that time the beautiful little Scottish cutter 'Minerva' was the fastest of the popular forty foot class, but 'Minerva' had rather a pot belly below water with such long and fine ends that she not only had unnecessary wetted surface but was apt to hobbyhorse or pitch too deeply. So in the model of 'Pelican' he straightened the diagonals by using a slightly smaller mid-section and increasing the sections at the water-line endings. This in turn slightly increased the overhangs. He also cut off the deep forefoot always found on English cutters of that time and a feature making them steer badly at times and always requiring the sail plan to be well forward. 'Pelican' may have been one of the first sailboats to be scientifically engineered in her construction so that she had approximately 60 per cent of her ballast all in an outside cast lead. Both her profile and mid-sections suggest the commencement of the bulb keel which in a few years was to come out in 'Wasp.'" (P. 159-160; 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.)

Model identification:
"Compare model 103 for Gloriana with model 112 for Pelican and Gannett. Model 112 was a precursor to Gloriana." (Source: van der Linde, Claas. March 30, 2009.)

Related model(s):
Model 1317 by NGH (1891?); sail, not built Model 0112 by NGH (1890?); sail, 2 built from
Model 1318 by NGH (1890?); sail Model 0103 by NGH (1891?); #411s Gloriana