HMCo #281p Sterling

"The 'Sterling' [#281p], a 36-feet motor boat, built for John B. Herreshoff, President of the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company; and the Aloha [#283p], a 30-feet power boat built for former Commodore Arthur Curtiss James, were launched from the Herreshoff boat shops last week." (Source: Anon. "Bristol and Vicinity." Bristol Phoenix, April 16, 1912, p. 4.)

"[Item Transcription:] Handwritten (in ink) trials booklet titled '1911. Trial Trips and Experiments'. Relevant contents:
§5: #281p STERLING Trial Run with different propellers (1911-08-30 & 1911-09-16)." (Source: Herreshoff, N.G. (creator) and Herreshoff, A. Sidney deW. (creator). Trials Booklet. Halsey C. Herreshoff Collection at the Herreshoff Marine Museum Item MRDE07_04280. Folder [no #]. 1911-06 to 1926-05.)
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Note: This list of archival documents contains in an unedited form any and all which mention #281p Sterling even if just in a cursory way. Permission to digitize, transcribe and display is gratefully acknowledged.

• Sterling (HMCo-made index card)
• Sterling (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: Sterling
Type: Gasoline
Length: 39'10"
Owner: Knowles, L. J.

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

• Sterling
• 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: Sterling
Type: 39' 10" gasoline
Owner: L. J. Knowles
Row No.: 657

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.: 281
Name: Sterling
OA: 39' 10"

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.

"Frame space 12 1/4in.
Breadth and depth with scale 14/12 of #276 [#276p Launch for S. Y. Intrepid] as for #277 [#277p Isabel].
Sheer 2in higher than for #277 [#277p Isabel]. ..." (Source: Herreshoff Manufacturing Company. [Notes on Plan 2-66 (Construction Plan for #281p Stirling). Bristol, RI, July 26, 1911.)

"It appears as if Sterling was built on speculation by J. B. Herreshoff, the decision to build having been made in December 1911 at a time when business was very low and no orders were coming in and HMCo was working at reduced hours." (Source: van der Linde, Claas. May 18, 2014.)

"Weight 5110#." (Source: Herreshoff, N.G.? Penciled Notes on Construction Plan 002-066 (HH.5.00069). 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.