HMCo #279p Premier

"A fast naphtha launch [#279p Premier or possibly #281p Sterling] was launched at high tide today at the Herreshoff boat shops for John B Herreshoff. The launch is designed to travel at the rate of 18 miles an hour. She is equipped with a 90 horse-power Sterling engine, is 40 feet long and 6 feet beam, and is built of cedar and mahogany. A 36-foot launch [#282p Launch for St. Y. Corsair III]] for J. Pierpont Morgan and another [apparently #283p Launch for Aloha II] of the same dimensions and design, for Ex-Commodore James of the New York Yacht Club, are nearly ready to be launched." (Source: Anon. "Launching at Herreshoff." Bristol Phoenix, August 25, 1911, p. 2.)

"[Item Description:] Penciled trial run note titled 'PREMIER [probably #265p and not #269p or #279p ?]. 2 mile' showing speeds (15.65, 15.5, 14.35, 16.5 and 16.25 miles per hour) and revolutions for 3 blade and 4 blade propellers of various pitch. On verso of printed trade card from Callender, McAuslan & Troup Co. who 'wish to announce that their Exhibitof Fine French and Domestic Lingerie will take place Tuesday, June the Ninth Nineteen Hundred Eight and respectifully invite your kind inspection of same. Providence, Rhode Island. Undated (probably ca. June 1908)." (Source: Herreshoff, N.G. (?) (creator). Trial Run Note. Halsey C. Herreshoff Collection at the Herreshoff Marine Museum Item MRDE03_01800. Folder [no #]. No date (1908-06 ??).)
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Note: This list of archival documents contains in an unedited form any and all which mention #279p Premier even if just in a cursory way. Permission to digitize, transcribe and display is gratefully acknowledged.

• Premier (HMCo-made index card)
• Premier (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: Premier
Type: Gasoline
Length: 34'
Owner: Herreshoff, J. B.

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

Name: Premier
Type: 34' gasoline
Owner: J. B. Herreshoff
Row No.: 545

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: 1911
E/P/S: P
No.: 279
Name: Premier
OA: 35' 0"

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.

"... see #278 [Power Launch for #692s Westward] dr[awing] 2-65 ..." (Source: Herreshoff Manufacturing Company. [Notes on Plan 2-69 (Construction Plan for Premier). Bristol, RI, July 5, 1911.)

"Note that the HMCo name index card for #279p Premier lists July 11, 1908, crossed out and corrected to July 11, 1911 as contract date. This mistake further supports the view that the contract dates on the respective cards for #276p and #277p were also in error as noted for these vessels." (Source: van der Linde, Claas. October 29, 2014.)

"Built in 45 days (contract to launch; equivalent to 98 lbs displacement/day)." (Source: van der Linde, Claas. January 16, 2024.)

"Weight 4400#." (Source: Herreshoff, N.G.? Penciled note on Construction Plan 2-69 (HH.5.00072). Haffenreffer-Herreshoff Collection, MIT Museum, Cambridge, MA.)

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