HMCo #331p [Launch for #725s Resolute]

"Reginald H. Vanderbilt was recently at Herreshoff's for an inspection of the power tender of the cup sloop Resolute, for use in the Red Cross work of New York Bay. [It is unclear if this is a reference to Resolute's power tender of 1918 or to a possibly earlier tender.]" (Source: Anon. "Notes From the Week's Log." Boston Globe, August 11, 1918, p. 44.)

"Resolute
LAUNCH BY HERRESHOFF MANUFACTURING COMPANY 26' 2" x 6' 6" ca. 1917
Five of these double-cockpit launches were built after they were designed by Nat Herreshoff for possible use by the U.S. Navy during the First World War. Legend has it that because the Herreshoffs wouldn't allow other builders the use of their design, the navy went elsewhere after obtaining only one boat. Two boats that were built to this design by the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company ended up at the Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club on Long Island, this one having served beforehand as a tender for the America's Cup defender Resolute. Year after year, Resolute, this boat that took on its name for obvious reasons, and Emerald, her sister club launch, shuttled between shore and the moored fleet carrying club members and their guests. Now both boats are in museums --- Emerald at the Herreshoff Marine Museum on the site of the Bristol, Rhode Island, yard that built her. Arriving weathered and worn from her many years of service, Resolute has been thoroughly and beautifully restored by Mystic Seaport's shipyard staff. She is once again operational and carries paying passengers along the Museum waterfront.
STATUS: Restored, operating, excellent condition.
DONOR: Purchased from SCYC
ACCESSION NO. 1980.133." (Source: Bray, Maynard with Benjamin A. G. Fuller and Peter T. Vermilya. Mystic Seaport Watercraft. Mystic, Connecticut, 2001, p. 286.)

"[Item Description:] Hand-written table titled 'Casting List for Gov. Pontoons', which apparently is a reference to #191801es Seaplane Barge No. 17 (Org. No. #331p), #191802es Seaplane Barge No. 18 (Org. No. #332p), #191803es Seaplane Barge No. 19 (Org. No. #333p), #191804es Seaplane Barge No. 20 (Org. No. #334p), #191805es Seaplane Barge No. 21 (Org. No. #335p), #191806es Seaplane Barge No. 22 (Org. No. #336p), #191807es Seaplane Barge No. 23 (Org. No. #337p), #191808es Seaplane Barge No. 24 (Org. No. #338p), #191809es Seaplane Barge No. 25 (Org. No. #339p), and #191810es Seaplane Barge No. 26 (Org. No. #340p). Showing pattern names, pattern numbers and drawing numbers." (Source: MIT Museum, Hart Nautical Collections, Haffenreffer-Herreshoff Collection Item HH.6.097. Table. Box HAFH.6.3B, Folder Administrative - Notes. No date (ca1918 ?).)
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"[Item Transcription:] [Handwritten draft, marked 'rough copy':] Mr. Swan says he has been talking with you over the wire and that Adm[ira]l Taylor will not approve of our plans for a chaser [#191802ep Unbuilt 200ft Submarine Chaser], until we send him the lines and a model is tried.
The lines (which is simply a copy of the lines he has and have already been thoroughly tried out) will be send as soon as traced off on Monday. But with his attitude about this I can see that it is the beginning of trouble we will have all through, and the outerfing[?] of the jealous feeling the Navy Dep. has always had against anything originated here.
We have had one dose of it already this spring with that half dozen Destroyer launches [#330p, #331p, #332p, #333p, #334p] which we built in good faith, and now have five of them on our hands.
If the Navy Department really have faith in our work and will buy this 200ft chaser from your syndicate [next six words crossed out] who will contract for it and who must must have faith us[?] as they would in ordering a Cup Defender, and also the Navy Dept. will aid us in getting material, if necessary --- all right and good!
But if the Navy Dept. is to dictate every step it is no job for the Herreshoff Mfg. Co. to undertake.
We must have a free hand in both design and work, otherwise it would be folly to undertake it.
We have seen nothing of Com. James yet. [Note: See also penciled note by NGH in Offset Booklet HH.4.047 (p. 24) 'June 15, 1998. Lines of Proposed 40ft. Aeroplane Rescue Boat at scale of 1in= 1ft, sent to Mr. Nichols to take to Washington &[?] have a model made from. Frame spaces 12in with one more frame added. Breadths and heights increased 3/2. Estimated displacement 10000'.]" (Source: Herreshoff, N.G. Letter (copy) to (Nichols), George. Halsey C. Herreshoff Collection at the Herreshoff Marine Museum Item MR_12080. Correspondence, Folder 36, formerly 191. 1918-06-01.)
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Note: This list of archival documents contains in an unedited form any and all which mention #331p [Launch for #725s Resolute] even if just in a cursory way. Permission to digitize, transcribe and display is gratefully acknowledged.

• Tender for Resolute (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.

Year: 1917
E/P/S: P
No.: 331
OA: 26' 2"
LW: 24' 1"

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.

"It is not clear if #331p is the tender for Resolute, now owned by Mystic Seaport Museum, even though this is suggested by an entry in the Wooden Boat Register. However, the tender for Resolute is certainly either one of #330p, #331p, #332p, #333p, or #334p." (Source: van der Linde, Claas. September 7, 2008.)

"Weight 2700 #." (Source: Herreshoff, N. G. Trials Notebook. Halsey C. Herreshoff Collection at the Herreshoff Marine Museum. Access courtesy Halsey Herreshoff.)

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