HMCo #396p [Power Tender for Fontinalis]

"[Item Description:] Handwritten notebook titled on outer cover 'Droughting Room. Blue Prints Record' providing a list of drawings with information in columns titled 'Issued To', 'For Job', 'Date', 'Date Returned', '[Date] Destroyed', and 'Remarks'. Vessels mentioned are #1266s BELISARIUS, #1267 FROSTFISH, #395p Owner Launch for St.Y. VIKING, #1265s NITRAMON, #1204s SILVERHEELS, #1233s RAINBOW, #1276s PRIM, #1275s MITENA, #907s PLEASURE, #931s NASSAU, #711s VENTURA, #900s IRIS, #982s WATER LILY, #891s WILDFIRE, #1147s WEETAMOE, #954s MARY ROSE, #880s JOSEPHINE, #788s MANATEE, #1146s ENTERPRISE, #1212s TRONDA, #1282s 12 1/2 for H. V. Reed, #1302s Amphicraft for N. F. Ayer, #1304s Amphicraft for Charles A. Welch, #1286s 12 1/2 for Mr. Maitland Alexander, #1311s Amphicraft for Dr. Seth M. Milliken, #1313s Dinghy for #663s RAMALLAH ex-ISTALENA, #1314s HMCo Yard Skiff, #408s PELICAN, #1315s BRENDA, #396p Power Tender for FONTINALIS, #397p Power Tender for FONTINALIS, #329p CAROLA, #1318s Sailing Dinghy for Henry S. Morgan; #1316s NOVA, #1319s Tech Dinghy, #1317s MANDOO II, #405p Surfboat, #1379s Fish Class for H. M. Lautmann (MERRY HELL), #1385s TINKER TOO, and #1384s AVANTI. 23 pages were used. Undated, the dates range from October 1934 to September 1936." (Source: Herreshoff Manufacturing Co. (creator). Notebook. MIT Museum, Hart Nautical Collections, Haffenreffer-Herreshoff Collection Item HH.6.106. Box HAFH.6.3B, Folder Blue Print Record Book. No date (1934-10 to 1936-09).)
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Note: This list of archival documents contains in an unedited form any and all which mention #396p [Power Tender for Fontinalis] even if just in a cursory way. Permission to digitize, transcribe and display is gratefully acknowledged.

• Launch (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: 1935
E/P/S: P
No.: 396
LW: 14'

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.

"14'-1" x 4'-8" Launch. #396. Frame spaces 7 1/4". On moulds of Columbia Life Boat with sheer height [unreadable]. Stern white oak 5/8" thick. Sheer strake white oak. Thwarts & Seats, 3/4" butternut. Planking, white cedar 5/16", lap strake. Decks 1/4" birch plywood. Bulkheads 1/4" birch plywood. Floors, 5/8" oak. [Motor, unreadable, possibly Lauson] 4 cyl. [Propeller] 12" [dia] x 15" [pitch]. Traced from (2-81) [Dinghy for Dianthus] which had 7 1/2" frame spaces and was 14'-6 3/4" long. So lengths are not corrected [as per notes on plan 2-117]." (Source: van der Linde, Claas. October 26, 2009.)

"This tender was built for the schooner Fontinalis, owned by Reginald W. Bird. Fontinalis was 68ft LOA, 45ft LWL with a beam of 14-3ft. She had been designed by George Owen and built by Hodgdon Brothers of East Boothbay, ME for A. H. Green, A.F. Jennings and C.G. Jennings of Detroit, Mich. Initially sailed from Lake St. Clair she was sold in later years to Marion, MA. She was scrapped in 1940 according to a note on a photo from the estate of George Owen in the collection of the MIT Museum." (Source: van der Linde, Claas. February 16, 2021.)

"Plan 2-117 from which this boat was built was drawn 1935-11." (Source: van der Linde, Claas. October 26, 2009.)

"Weight 485 lbs. April 21, 1936." (Source: Herreshoff Manufacturing Company. Penciled note on construction plan 002-117 (HH.5.00121), dated November 2, 1935. 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.