HMCo #318p Commodore

"[1917-03-20] Tue 20: Have order for 6 62' patrol boats for Boston men [#314p Inca, #315p Ellen, #316p Kangaroo, #317p Daiquiri, #318p Commodore, #319p Sea Hawk]." (Source: Herreshoff, Nathanael G. Diary, 1917. Manuscript (excerpts). Diary access courtesy of Halsey C. Herreshoff.)

"Orders have been received by the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company for six speedy gasoline launches [#317p Daiquiri, #316p Kangaroo, #315p Ellen, #314p Inca, #318p Commodore and #319p Sea Hawk] to be built for as many different members of the Eastern Yacht Club. The boats are to be about 70 feet in length, and their owners expect to turn them over to the government for use in the coast patrol service. Each boat will have one gun on the forward deck The work is being rushed.
The company has also entered bids with the government for several large and fast gasoline launches, but orders have not yet been received for their building." (Source: Anon. "Much Work At Herreshoffs.
Yachtmen Order Six Fast Boats For Coast Patrol Service." Bristol Phoenix, March 23, 1917, p. 3.)

"Members of the Eastern Y. C. some time ago placed orders with the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company for eight 62-footers [#310p, #311p, #314p - #319p] for use as submarine chasers. The designs of these boats were approved by the Navy Department and four have been delivered and are on patrol duty. The commander of this unit is Richard S. Russell and his flagship will be an 80-footer [#312p Stinger] which is now nearing completion.
The first of the 62-footers is named Apache and is commanded by Robert F. Herrick, the Harvard rowing coach. All of these boats are named and hold their names until they have satisfied the Government inspectors that they are able to do the work to which they are assigned, and then the names give way to numbers with the letters S. P. --- scout patrol --- in front of the numerals.
The power of these boats consists of Model F, eight-cylinder Sterling engines of 200 h.p. The contract speed was 24 1/2 miles per hour, and the actual speed over a measured mile course was in excess of 25 miles. This is the sustained speed and it will probably be somewhat increased as the engines see more service, making more of a success of the type than was expected even by the most optimistic.
With the exception of a small rear cockpit, the entire boat is cabined. The forward deck is high and but slightly crowned. It is accessible both from the conning tower and from the runways on each side of the main cabin. A novel departure is the entrance to the engine room and forward quarters through the stack, while the design of the tower is both original and quite militaire. Boats of this design are apparently setting the style in submarine chasers and their increasing sturdiness of build is becoming more noticeable as they demonstrate their usefulness. These boats will meet incoming steamers, examine their papers, search if necessary, do patrol duty, tend nets, act as messengers, and perform the various services, necessary in war time, the omission of which might allow incendiary damage to harbors and cargo steamers." (Source: Anon. "Eastern Y. C. Patrol Boats." Rudder, September 1917, p. 594.)

"... Designer Swasey tested the first of the week two of the 62-foot patrol power yachts built by Herreshoff. One of the boats was the craft ordered by Commodore Herbert M. Sears and the other flag officers of the Eastern Yacht Club, which is known as the flag officers' boat. Over the measured course in Narragansett Bay the boats showed an average speed of 20 miles an hour. ..." (Source: Anon. "Notes from the Week's Log." Boston Globe, September 16, 1917, p. 54.)

"Daiquiri [#317p], Ellen [#315p], Apacha [sic, i.e. Apache #311p], Inca [#314p], Kangaroo [#316p], Commodore [#318p], Snark [#310p] and Sea Hawk [#319p] are the names of the eight patrol boats built by Herreshoff for members of the Eastern Yacht Club which have been turned over to the Navy Department. These 62-foot boats are equipped with two Sterling eight-cylinder 400-horsepower engines and are capable of 27 miles an hour." (Source: Anon. "Notes From the Week's Log." Boston Globe, December 23, 1917, p. 25.)

"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. ...
Commodore [Name of Boat]; 1425 [S.P. No.]; 63-3 [Length]; 19,000.00 [Purchase Price]; Herbert N. Sears, Boston, Mass. [Former Owner]. ..." (Source: Anon. "Privately Owned Motor Boats Purchased by the Government. First List to Be Published Containing Names of Motor Boats Taken Into the Navy." Motor Boating, February 1919, p. 36-40.)

"If details are few on the role of the [Eastern Yacht] clubhouse as a naval training station, they are no more than clues that a part may have been played by some members at sea --- as tossed out by John Parkinson in his History of the New York Yacht Club: 'A group of Boston yachtsmen, which included some NYYC members, built a one-design division of fast patrol boats at their own expense before their country entered the war. They were about 50 feet long and proved useful.'
The 1917 EYC Yearbook lists eight powerboats, all 62 feet overall, 61 feet waterline, and 11 feet beam, except one 58 feet overall, 57 feet waterline and 11 feet beam. All were under construction for single and multiple owners, including Maximilian Agassiz, John S. Lawrence, Herbert M. Sears, Oliver Ames, Charles F. Ayer, Francis S. Eaton, Charles P. Curtis, and Charles A. and Henry A. Morss. Nathaniel F. Ayer was building the 58-footer. There is no further reference to them. Philip Bolger heard that Ralph Winslow claimed to have designed them while working as Loring Swazey's draftsman. On the other hand, one wonders whether these or the fast patrol boats mentioned by Parkinson --- considerably elongated --- are the same as those alluded to by Devereux Barker in The Eastern Yacht Club Story many years later:
'Shortly after the Declaration of War, the Government asked yachtsmen to subscribe for power boats to be used for submarine patrol. They were to be built by Herreshoff, be about 40 feet long, and cost $ 18,000. The added inducement was that the owner would be commissioned as an ensign and command his own vessel. This inducement was shortly annulled, but in any event, the delays in the yard were so great that few, if any, of the craft were delivered in time to be of any use.' " (Source: Garland, Joseph. The Eastern Yacht Club: A History from 1870-1985. Camden, Maine, 1989, p. 143.)

"Commodore (SP 1425)
Commodore served both the U. S. Navy and the Army.
Motorboat: Built in 1917 as Herreshoff No. 318 by the Herreshoff Manufacturing Co., Bristol, RI; Acquired by the Navy in October 1917; Commissioned USS Commodore (SP 1425) in November 1917; Decommissioned in May 1919 at Pensacola Naval Air Station, FL; Transferred to the Army in October 1919.
Fate unknown.
Specifications: Displacement unknown; Length 62' 4"; Beam unknown; Draft unknown; Speed unknown; Complement unknown; Armament unknown.
Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships History: The second Commodore (No. 1425), a motorboat, served in the Navy during 1917-19." (Source: http://www.navsource.org/archives/12/171425.htm, retrieved March 17, 2007.)

"Nine of these 62-foot patrol boats were built by the Herreshoff Mfg. Co. for the training of World War I Naval Reserve volunteers, having been ordered and paid for as a patriotic gesture by members of the Eastern Yacht Club of Marblehead, Massachusetts. (The EYC clubhouse, having been converted early in the war as a barracks, served as an operational base for these patrol boats.) Their cost was $19,000 each. They were twin-screw vessels, powered by two eight-cylinder Sterling engines. These craft ... each carried a standard, Herreshoff-built Columbia-model tender --- a somewhat delicate lifeboat for wartime use." (Source: Bray, Maynard and Carlton Pinheiro. Herreshoff of Bristol. Brooklin, Maine, 1989, p. 152.)

"[Item Description:] Enclosing a revised purchase and sale agreement, 'what I want is to ensure your and Sidney's services', Swasey has signed similar agreement, Eastern YC member navy boats [#310p, #311p, #314p, #315p, #316p, #317p, #318p, #319p]." (Source: Emmons, Robert W. Letter to N.G. Herreshoff. Halsey C. Herreshoff Collection at the Herreshoff Marine Museum Item MR_59180. Unidentif. / Non-Cataloged, Folder [no #], formerly 253?. 1917-02-09.)
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"[Item Description:] Lease of storage property, please work out plans for new shop construction, Eastern YC member are negotiating with William Swan about navy boats [#310p, #311p, #314p, #315p, #316p, #317p, #318p, #319p]." (Source: Emmons, Robert W. Letter to N.G. Herreshoff. Halsey C. Herreshoff Collection at the Herreshoff Marine Museum Item MR_59170. Unidentif. / Non-Cataloged, Folder [no #], formerly 253?. 1917-03-16.)
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Note: This list of archival documents contains in an unedited form any and all which mention #318p Commodore even if just in a cursory way. Permission to digitize, transcribe and display is gratefully acknowledged.

• Anon. "Eastern Y.C. Patrol Fleet." Rudder Magazine, January 1918, p. 7-8. (1,607 kB)
  Document is copyrighted: No. Class history. Vessel description. Owner names. Photos. (#320p War Bug, though part of this class, is not mentioned in the article, because she was independently contracted for by a non-Eastern Y. C. yachtsman.)

• Commodore (HMCo-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: Aumdere
Type: Gasoline
Length: 62'4"
Owner: Sears, Herbert M.

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

• Commodore
• 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: Aumbere
Type: 62' 4" gas.; given to Navy for scout patrol
Owner: Henry M. Sears
Year: 1914
Row No.: 61

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.: 318
OA: 62' 4"
LW: 61' 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.

"One of a group of eight identical vessels built for members of the Eastern Yacht Club for use by the U.S. Navy. A ninth vessel, War Bug, was independently sponsored by Max Warburg of New York." (Source: van der Linde, Claas. February 9, 2009.)

"In the absence of better available data displacement was estimated by using the figure for Net Register Tons (12) from the 1919 List of Merchant Vessels of the U.S. 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.