HMCo #157p Aquila

"[1889-03-17] Fri 15: [Brother] John & [his daughter] Katie returned from Calafornia[sic]. Order for 23' st[eame]r (#157) [sic. The 23ft length suggests this to be a reference to #158p Launch for Seal Fishing for use on the West Coast. Note, however, that #157p Aquila, though 48ft long, was also meant to be sent to San Francisco. Subsequent diary entries will continue to mix up the hull numbers of these two launches].
[1889-04-01] Mon 1: ... Order for 48ft (#158) [sic, i.e. #157p Aquila] st[eame]r.
[1889-04-12] Fri 12: Set up st[eame]r #158 [sic, i.e. #157p Aquila] (48ft for Hearst).
[1889-04-18] Thu 18: Began plating st[eame]r #158 [sic, i.e. #157p Aquila].
[1889-09-10] Tue 10: Launched st[eame]r #157 [corrected from #158] [#157p Aquila], 48ft launch to be sent to S. Francisco." (Source: Herreshoff, Nathanael G. Diary, 1889. Manuscript (excerpts). Herreshoff Marine Museum Collection.)

"No. 157 [Aquila], steam yacht, of [blank].
Built at Bristol, RI, by Herreshoff Manufacturing Co., 1889.
3.37 net tons; 46.6 ft. x 7.6 ft. x 3.8 ft. [Register length x breadth x depth.]
Plain head, square stern.
Surveyed and measured, June 18, 1889." (Source: U.S. Customs Department, Bristol, R.I. Custom House Record Book, 1870s to 1904 (Collection of the Herreshoff Marine Museum), s.v. No. 157.)

"[License issued to vessel under 20 tons. Pos. 200:]
No. 157 [Aquila], steam yacht, of Bristol.
Built at [blank] [HMCo].
3.37 tons; no dimensions nor specifications shown.
Previous documentation not shown.
Lic[ensed] ([as] yacht) Aug. 7, 1889. Owner: Herreshoff Manufacturing Company of Bristol. Master: [blank]. ([Record at:] C[ustom] H[ouse, Providence])." (Source: Survey of Federal Archives, Work Projects Administration. Ships Documents of Rhode Island. Bristol. Ship Registers and Enrollments of the Port of Bristol - Warren Rhode Island, 1941, s.v. No. 157.)

"The 'Examiner' steam launch 'Aqulia' (Herreshoff build) will be for sale upon the arrival of the larger steamer from Herreshoff's. [The 'larger steamer' is a reference to #168p Vamoose which was built for Aquila's owner William Randolph Herast but in the end never delivered to San Francisco.] The 'Aquila" is 48 feet long by 7 1/2 beam. She is built in mahogany and finished in brass, fitted with coil boiler and triple expansion engines. She is only 1 year old, but is a proved sucess, having made more than her guarranteed speed of 18 miles an hour, at times running nearly 20 miles. For price and terms address THE EXAMINER, San Francisco. [Note: Identical advertisements appeared in the same paper on October 17, 1890, November 21, 1890, December 12, 1890, December 19, 1890, and January 2, 1891.]" (Source: Anon (Hearst, William Randolph). "For Sale. The Examiner Steam Launch." Sausalito News, September 26, 1890, p. 2.)

"Though twenty-four years of age, Will Hearst looked and some would say behaved even younger. Florence Finch Kelly, who met him for the first time in the summer of 1887 when she moved to San Francisco with her husband, who had been appointed city editor of the Examiner, remembered him as 'tall, slender, good-looking, very blond, with a pink and white complexion and a little golden mustache, boyish and slightly diffident in manner and still a bit under the influence of the impish high spirits of youth.' Hearst spent most of his waking hours at the Examiner and commuted back and forth across the Bay in his fifty-foot speed boat, the Aquila, reportedly the fastest boat on the Pacific Coast, which he had persuaded his parents to build for him, perhaps as another consolation prize for breaking off his engagement to Eleanor Calhoun." (Source: Nasaw, David. "The Chief: The Life of William Randloph Hearst." New York, 2001, p. 68.)

"N/A"

"[Item Description:] Casting Book # 2 [B (there is another Casting Book # 2)] showing hull castings as per title only for steamers #148p Our Mary and #149p Jersey Lily. Contents, however, also include castings for other boats including #188903es Yawl Boat for #157p Aquila, #405s Alice, #406s Iris, #54p Dolphin, #65p Gleam, #104p Magnolia, #104p Magnolia, #133p Henrietta, #151p Ballymena, #152p Cushing, #155p Augusta [III], #156p Antoinette, #157p Aquila, #158p Launch for Seal Fishing, and #162p Judy. Also listed are many parts for a quadruple engine (probably for #152p Cushing or for #150p Say When or #151p Ballymena). While other casting lists record both castings made at home and at outside foundries, this book appears to list only castings made at outside foundries and none at home. A first part of the booklet from front to about the middle shows casting numbers, descriptions, numbers of castings and foundry where made with dates ranging from Sept 10, [1887] to Dec 14 [1889]. A second, upside down, part of the booklet begins at the end and then goes back to the middle showing for the same date range 'Patterns sent away' with pattern numbers and names of foundries these were sent to. A further section then shows castings required for #152p Cushing and as well as castings required for Lagging, Pumping Engines, Feed Pump and Air Pump, all these possibly also for #152p Cusing. A final section shows 'Patterns ordered home' with pattern numbers, foundry names these were received from and dates ranging from Sept 12 [1887] to Dec 16 [1889]." (Source: MIT Museum, Hart Nautical Collections, Haffenreffer-Herreshoff Collection Item HH.6.120-03. Castings Book 2B. Box HAFH.6.4B, Folder Casting Record Books Hull Castings Order Book 2. 1888-09-10 to 1889-12-14.)
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Note: This list of archival documents contains in an unedited form any and all which mention #157p Aquila even if just in a cursory way. Permission to digitize, transcribe and display is gratefully acknowledged.

• Aquila (HMCo-made index card)
• Aquila (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.

Name: Aquila
Type: Steam
Length: 48'
Owner: Hearst, Wm. Randolph

Source: Herreshoff Manufacturing Company. "A Partial List of Herreshoff Clients." In: Herreshoff Manufacturing Company. Herreshoff Yachts. Bristol, Rhode Island, ca. 1931.

• Aquila
• 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: Aquila
Type: 48' steam
Owner: Wm. Randolph Hearst
Row No.: 41

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.

Year: 189 [sic, i.e. 1889]
E/P/S: P
No.: 157
Name: Aquila
OA: 48'

Source: Vermilya, Peter and Maynard Bray. "Transcription of the HMCo. Construction Record." Unpublished database, ca. 2000.

Note: The transcription of the HMCo Construction Record by Peter Vermilya and Maynard Bray was performed independently (and earlier) than that by Claas van der Linde. A comparison of the two transcriptions can be particularly useful in those many cases where the handwriting in the Construction Record is difficult to decipher.

"Built in 162 days (contract to launch)." (Source: van der Linde, Claas. January 16, 2024.)

Note: Research notes contain information about a vessel that is often random and unedited but has been deemed useful for future research.