Model No. 425: X.P.D.N.C. and Caloola

Model by: NGH
Made when: 1888
Stated model scale: 1/16
Model length (ca.): 30.3" (77.1cm)
Implied vessel LOA at 1/16 (ca.): 40' 5" (12.3m)
Power/Sail: P
Vessel Type: Racing Power Launch
Model location: H.M.M. Model Room West Wall Left

Vessels from this model:
4 built, modeled by NGH

Original text on model:
"Model made in 1888 EXPEDIENCE #245 Sept 1904 spaces 10" scale 3/4" (frames 11. 45' long)
CALOOLA 254" (Source: Original handwritten annotation on model. Undated.)

Model description:
"45' gasoline racing launch XPDNC of 1904 and, with change in scale, the 40' Caloola two years later." (Source: Bray, Maynard. 2004.)

Model discussion:
"One of the most interesting of the smaller gasoline launches was the 'X P D N C.' ... Although 'X P D N C' proved to be one of the fastest launches of her time it is very interesting that her model had been made in about 1878[sic, i.e. 1888] for a steam torpedo boat which was not built. But what is even more remarkable is the fact that some of the latest torpedo boat destroyers --- those now in use --- are very similar in underwater shape, and when the destroyer finally gets to this exact model, it will be nearing perfection.
The Herreshoff Company built three launches in all from this model, and the writer had occasion to run one of them quite a little in comparatively rough water and can say that this model goes very smoothly and evenly in a choppy sea and is not slowed down by waves of a size that make the more modern shapes jump and pound seriously. To the writer, at least, it seems remarkable that Captain Nat developed this shape over seventy-five years ago." (P. 248, 250; 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.)

Comment:
"#256p Gadget (1906) and #269p Premier (1908) were added by CvdL to the list of vessels built from this model as they were built from moulds based on this model and because they were listed in the same offset booklet as #245p X.P.D.N.C. (1904) and #254p Caloola (1906) which were built from model 425." (Source: van der Linde, Claas. 2008.)

"According to a note on sheet with pantograph hull sections for #245 X.P.D.N.C. in the Halsey C. Herreshoff Collection at the Herreshoff Marine Museum, this model was originally made for a torpedo boat." (Source: van der Linde, Claas. February 17, 2019.)