HMCo #8p Actinia

"Mr. John B. Herreshoff launched from his yard last Saturday [August 19, 1871] morning a new steam yacht, about forty feet long and seven feet breadth of beam. She is about the size of the Julia [#7p] recently built at that yard." (Source: Anon. "Local Tintypes." Bristol Phoenix, August 26, 1871, p. 2.)

"THE HOME OF HIGH SPEEDS. --- The summer months have opened busily at the constructing and machine shops of the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company, Bristol. R. I. ... The steamer Actinia, belonging to Prof. Alexander Agassis, has just been fitted out with a coil boiler and compound engine, new shaft, screw, etc., beside which the internal arrangements have been altered, and she is now ready to be sent to the Professor's residence at Castle Hill, Newport. ..." (Source: Anon. (C. P. Kunhardt?) "Yachting News." Forest and Stream, June 24, 1880, p. 419.)

"N/A"

Note: This list of archival documents contains in an unedited form any and all which mention #8p Actinia even if just in a cursory way. Permission to digitize, transcribe and display is gratefully acknowledged.

• Actinia (HMCo-made index card)
• Actinia (MIT Museum-made index card)
• Note: The vessel index cards comprise two sets of a total of some 3200 cards about vessels built by HMCo, with dimensions and information regarding drawings, later or former vessel names, and owners. They were compiled from HMCo's early days until 1920 and added to in later decades, apparently by Hart Nautical curator William A. Baker and his successors. While HMCo seems to have used only one set of index cards, all sorted by name and, where no name was available, by number, later users at MIT apparently divided them into two sets of cards, one sorted by vessel name, the other by vessel number and greatly expanded the number of cards. Original HMCo cards are usually lined and almost always punched with a hole at bottom center while later cards usually have no hole, are unlined, and often carry substantially less information. All cards are held by the Francis Russell Hart Nautical Collections of the MIT Museum in Cambridge, Mass.

• Actinia
• 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: Actinia
Type: 42' steamer
Owner: Alexander Agassiz
Year: 1871
Row No.: 2

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.

"Ordered Aug. 1870 as per vessel index card." (Source: van der Linde, Claas. February 6, 2015.)

"In the absence of better available data displacement was estimated by using the figure for Old Measurement Tons (9) from the 1881 Olsen's American Yacht List (New Measurement Tons were reported as 1.23 by the 1885 Olsen's American Yacht List) 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.