HMCo #307p Lynx II

"[1917-02-10] Sat 10: ... NW gale. Temp[erature] 8deg. Began planking on #307 [Lynx II]. ...
[1917-02-22] Thu 22: Turned over #307 [Lynx II] in PM. Mr. Ayre & Bob Emmons here in PM. L[igh]t S [in] AM. Fair [in] PM.
[1917-05-11] Fri 11: Mr. Ayre's 58 ft Lynx II #307 delivered & left. ..." (Source: Herreshoff, Nathanael G. Diary, 1917. Manuscript (excerpts). Diary access courtesy of Halsey C. Herreshoff.)

"January 1917.
No. 307 [#307p]
Twin screw. Gasoline launch.
Frame spaces 13 1/2".
Timbers moulded 1 5/8.
Those forward of break in deck (at about [frame] # 19) to extend above lower sheer line 6", and spliced out, after turning vessel over, with 1 1/4 x 1 1/4 x 1/8 angle bars, to the raised deck sjeer.
Olanking 1/2 + 5/8 = 1 1/8.
Deck 1 1/8 (thickness above sheer height given).
Bulkheads at # 16 - 26 & 44.
Keel sided 3 3/4".
Stem sided 4 1/4".
[Extra data for #368p Mary Ann on pages for stations 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45 and 49.]" (Source: Herreshoff, N.G. [Handwritten (in ink and pencil) notes in Offset Booklet HH.4.050.] January 1917. Haffenreffer-Herreshoff Collection, MIT Museum, Cambridge, MA.)

"The new power yacht Lynx II, built by the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company for J C Tucker [sic] of New York, was launched at the boat shops Wednesday evening. The craft, which is of the patrol type, is 62 feet in length, with a cabin trunk deck, pilot house and bridge, and raised deck forward." (Source: Anon. "Bristol and Vicinity." Bristol Phoenix, April 20, 1917, p. 2.)

"... Lynx II, a new power boat of the patrol type, built by Herreshoff for J. O Tucker [sic] of New York, was launched last Wednesday [April 18, 1917]. The Lynx II is of the same dimensions as the Lady Gay, 62 feet over all, with pilot house, bridge and raised forward deck. She is to be driven by a 400-horsepower-engine. ... [#307p Lynx was 58' LOA and built for N. Ayer, while #310p Snark was 62' LOA and built for Carl Tucker. It is not clear which yacht is meant in this article.]" (Source: Anon. "Notes From The Week's Log." Boston Globe, April 22, 1917, p. 59.)

"IN the lists printed on pages 36, 38, and 40, will be found a complete record of all motor boats and motor yachts which went into the service of our Navy Department during the war period. This is the first time that such a list has been published and is given to Motor Boating at the special request of the Hon. Franklin D. Roosevelt, Assistant Secretary of the Navy.
The data which is printed is divided into four parts. Motor boats purchased outright by the Government; Motor boats loaned by their owners to the Government on a free lease basis; Motor boats chartered, and Motor boats lost.
The lists include boats propelled by internal combustion motors only—they do not include steam yachts or steamers of any description.
A large majority of the boats purchased by the Government are to be offered for sale at once. Those which are to be sold are marked with a *. ...
*Lynx [Name of Boat]; 730 [S.P. No.]; 58 [Length]; 13,000.00 [Purchase Price]; Nathaniel F. Ayer, Boston, Mass. [Former Owner]. ..." Motor Boating, February 1919, p. 36-40.)

"Lynx II (SP 730)
Lynx II, a 58-foot motor boat, was built at Bristol, Rhode Island, in 1917 for a private owner. She was designed for patrol service with the intention that she would be made available to the Navy when required, and she was accordingly purchased by the Navy in June 1917. Commissioned in the next month as USS Lynx II (SP-730), she served along the east coast of Massachusetts as a dispatch and harbor patrol craft for the rest of World War I and during the first months following the conflict. She was renamed SP-730 in 1918. Decommissioned in May 1919 and stricken from the Navy list in June, the boat was sold in September of that year. Fate unknown.
Specifications: Displacement unknown.; Length 58'; Beam unknown; Draft unknown; Speed unknown; Complement unknown; Armament unknown." (Source: http://www.navsource.org/archives/12/170639.htm, retrieved March 17, 2007.)

"N/A"

"[Item Description:] Penciled pantograph hull sections with tracing marks showing the forward section of a powerboat. Marked '1916-1917' and 'No 607'. Note that No 607 would have been PT 437, a Vosper torpedo boat from 1943. Careful overlaying of these sections with the respective sections plan at MIT shows this to be #307p LYNX II which was contracted for on January 6, 1917." (Source: Herreshoff, N.G. (?) (creator). Pantograph Hull Sections. Halsey C. Herreshoff Collection at the Herreshoff Marine Museum Item MRDE04_03850. Folder [no #]. Ca 1917-01-06.)
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"[Item Description:] Penciled pantograph hull sections with tracing marks showing the aft section of a powerboat. Marked '1916-1917' and 'No 607'. Note that No 607 would have been PT 437, a Vosper torpedo boat from 1943. Careful overlaying of these sections with the respective sections plan at MIT shows this to be #307p LYNX II which was contracted for on January 6, 1917." (Source: Herreshoff, N.G. (?) (creator). Pantograph Hull Sections. Halsey C. Herreshoff Collection at the Herreshoff Marine Museum Item MRDE04_03860. Folder [no #]. Ca 1917-01-06.)
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"[Item Description:] Penciled pantograph hull sections on verso of 'Herreshoff Manufacturing Company, Bristol, R.I., John B. Herreshoff Prest. & Treas., N.G. Herreshoff, Supt., C.W. Young, Sec'y' stationery. Titled '1916 - 1917. No 607 [#607p]'. Marked '1916-1917' and 'No 607'. Note that No 607 would have been PT 437, a Vosper torpedo boat from 1943. Careful overlaying of these sections with the respective sections plan at MIT shows this to be #307p LYNX II which was contracted for on January 6, 1917." (Source: Herreshoff, N.G. (creator). Pantograph Hull Sections. Halsey C. Herreshoff Collection at the Herreshoff Marine Museum Item MRDE04_06930. Folder [no #]. Ca 1917-01-06.)
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"[Item Transcription:] [Typewritten signed letter to NGH in Florida on 'Herreshoff Manufacturing Company, Bristol Rhode Island' stationery:] Thank you for your letter of the 25th [April 1928], received this morning.
A photograph was received here, addressed to Mr. Draper in your care at Bristol, R. I., and we wrote Mr. Draper asking whether he wished it forwarded or not. Mr. Draper sent us a note saying that the address was correct and we therefore forwarded the photograph to him.
In accordance with your instructions I will deliver all your second-class mail after May first to Sidney, and the first class mail I will hold for your instructions after May 5th.
Mr. Morgan's 70-Foot Motor Boat [#384p SHUTTLE] is leaving today as soon as the weather is fit; Mr. Tod's new boat [#1078s THISTLE] is scheduled for launching next Thursday; Sheppey has been quite ill and has postponed the launching of his new boat [#1074s SHEERNESS] for a few days; BLACKSHEAR formerly the KATOURA [#1050s], is outfitted and is leaving here today or tomorrow; The LYNX [#307p] has been sold to Bradford Ellsworth and is being taken over to Lawley's Yard next Wednesday for the installation of a Sterling Trident Motor; we have got about three-quarters of Mr. Vanderbilt's frames [for #385p VARA] set up and we are very busy.
With all kinds of good wishes to you and
Mrs. Herreshoff, I am
Very truly yours, ..." (Source: Brightman, Thomas. Letter to N.G. Herreshoff. Halsey C. Herreshoff Collection at the Herreshoff Marine Museum Item MR_06630. Correspondence, Folder 23, formerly 207. 1928-04-28.)
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Note: This list of archival documents contains in an unedited form any and all which mention #307p Lynx II even if just in a cursory way. Permission to digitize, transcribe and display is gratefully acknowledged.

• Lynx II (HMCo-made index card)
• Lynx II (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: Lynx II
Type: Gasoline
Length: 58'
Owner: Ayer, N. F.

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

• Lynx II
• 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: Lynx II
Type: 58' gasoline
Owner: Nathaniel F. Ayer
Year: 1917
Row No.: 388

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: 1917
E/P/S: P
No.: 307
Name: Lynx 2nd.
OA: 58' 0"
LW: 58' 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.

"Built in 125 days (contract to delivered; equivalent to 448 lbs displacement/day)." (Source: van der Linde, Claas. January 16, 2024.)

"In the absence of better available data displacement was estimated by using the figure for Gross Register Tons (28) from the 1920 Lloyd's Register of American Yachts (Net Register Tons were reported as 22) 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.