HMCo #403s Calypso

"[1889-05-03] Fri 3: Turned over 16f[t] boat for Dr. de Marini [#403s Calypso].
[1889-07-13] Sat 13: Launched 16 1/2 f[t] sail boat for Dr. de Marini [#403s Calypso]." (Source: Herreshoff, Nathanael G. Diary, 1889. Manuscript (excerpts). Herreshoff Marine Museum Collection.)

"[Item Description:] Penciled construction plan with half-breadth plan and inboard profile titled '#403. 16ft 8in Sail boat (SABRINA [#187803es] model) for Dr. G. C. De Marini (CALYPSO). April 1889. Scale 1in = 1ft'. On verso three superimposed hull profiles, of which the shortest appears to be #403s SABRINA and the intermediate-length one appears to be related to #407s BIRD." (Source: Herreshoff, N.G. (creator). Penciled Plan. Halsey C. Herreshoff Collection at the Herreshoff Marine Museum Acc. 2004.0001.0268. WRDT04, Folder 24, formerly MRDE08. 1889-04.)
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"[Item Transcription:] [Handwritten (in ink) ink on linen penciled letter:] Dear Nat
I send you plans of centreboard (steel plate) as used by Charles Wahl of Wiborg, Finland.
I have no doubt you will improve on it. An immense advantage it has of being always free & can be pulled entirely out into the boat whilst sailing & I hope you will [p. 2] arrange one such for the new MINNEHAHA [#403s CALYPSO] --- as to the outside lead keel I do not like it as it makes a weight too far aft and is only useful when going free --- and I have never found the best[?] of it, and I have sailed in all weathers!
It also makes the boat so much heavier when taking out [p. 3] of the water & showing it about.
When you get this with this drawing you can send it to Minneapolis.
I always forgot to tell you that the new sail that I got for the M[INNE]HAHA [#187803es ex-SABRINA] did not work at all. The gaff part was much too long and the boat could not sail so near the wind --- too large at [p. 4] top & would have needed 2 or three feet longer mast to make it set. With one reef in, it worked very well.
With best regards to all
Faithfully your friend
G[eorg]e deMarini
Admiralty Quay 4
St. Petersburg
April 14/16 1889
[P.S.] Expect to see you in July! [With ink on linen (black and color) drawing of centerboard with English-language notes marked in lower right corner 'Wiborg. 8. 4. 1889. M (or W?)'.] [With envelope from St. Petersburg to Bristol postmarked 6 AIIP 1889.]" (Source: de Marini, (Dr.) George C. Letter to N.G. Herreshoff. Halsey C. Herreshoff Collection at the Herreshoff Marine Museum Item MRDE05_01770. Folder [no #]. 1889-04-16.)
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"[Item Description:] Typewritten and penciled table with data for 'Date of Order', '[Hull] No.', 'Name', 'Length on W.L.', 'Beam', 'Draft', 'Rig', 'Keel or Centerboard Keel', 'Ballast' for #400s CONSUELO, #401s ROMP, #402s CLARA, #403s CALYPSO, #404s COQUINA, #405s ALICE, #406s IRIS, #407s BIRD, #408s PELLICAN[sic], #409s GANNET, #410s MAB, #411s GLORIANA, #412s DILEMMA, #413s SAYONARA, #414s WASP, #415s WENONAH, #416s ALPHA, #417s DRUSILLA, #418s EL CHICO, #419s COQUINA 2ND, #420s REAPER and #421s BEE. Undated (data until 1891 is typewritten, thereafter penciled, suggesting that the table was prepared in January 1892 before EL CHICO, the first boat with a penciled year, was contracted for)." (Source: Herreshoff Manufacturing Co. (creator). Construction Record Table. Halsey C. Herreshoff Collection at the Herreshoff Marine Museum Item MRDW02_04530. Folder [no #]. No date (1892-01 ?).)
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"[Item Description:] mounted photo labeled 'The [#403s] CALYPSO on Lake Minnetonka near St. Paul Minnesota' (was part of a group of four photos sent by Dr. George C. de Marini on May 22, 1909 in an envelope labeled '4 photographies (3 mounted), ..., Dr. de Marini, 70 rue Gerard'). No date, 1889 or later." (Source: de Marini, (Dr.) George C. (sender). Letter to N.G. Herreshoff. Halsey C. Herreshoff Collection at the Herreshoff Marine Museum Item MR_36170. Subject Files, Folder [no #], formerly 205?. No date (sent by de Marini 1909-05-22).)
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"[Item Description:] mounted photo, labeled on verso 'The [#403s] CALYPSO on lake Minnetonka' (was part of a group of four photos sent by Dr. George C. de Marini on May 22, 1909 in an envelope labeled '4 photographies (3 mounted), ..., Dr. de Marini, 70 rue Gerard'. No date, 1889 or later." (Source: de Marini, (Dr.) George C. (sender). Letter to N.G. Herreshoff. Halsey C. Herreshoff Collection at the Herreshoff Marine Museum Item MR_36230. Subject Files, Folder [no #], formerly 205?. No date (sent by de Marini 1909-05-22).)
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"[Item Description:] received on the 19th inst yours of the 9th inst and was glad to see that you decided at once for having the 5th vol [of Holtzapffel's work] on ornamental turning; should advice you to get the 4th vol. also; chucks and other lathe attachments, 'On the 22[nd] I mailed to you 3 photos of MINNEHAHA [#187803es ex-SABRINA] & CALYPSO [#403s] which you sent us to Lake Minnetonka. She was very nice but did not come up to MINNEHAHA. Also a photo taken of self by [son] Eddie whilst I was sketching, it was too hot to fish. I took 56 trouts with the artist fly in 3 hours! We lived on trout & bacon (you can see the bacon in the box in front of me.)', I enclose a photo of a few things I have turned and sculpted, spool holder & pin cushion, centre parts in ivory fluted, on right side over inlays in ivory, table I made & carved, in walnut, I have made quite a lot of pieces of furniture, Alice is getting on well & we really hope she will receover her reason. Incl envelope annotate by NGH in pencil with list of equipment or things to be done for a boat. Incl photo of carved table with annotation on verso 'In the centre solver golt (inside also) cup, given at St. Petersburg by the Grand Duke Alexis --- won by MINNEHAHA [#187803es ex-SABRINA] De Marini stearer'." (Source: de Marini, (Dr.) George C. Letter to N.G. Herreshoff. Halsey C. Herreshoff Collection at the Herreshoff Marine Museum Item MR_15090. Correspondence, Folder 41, formerly 203. 1909-05-27.)
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Note: This list of archival documents contains in an unedited form any and all which mention #403s Calypso even if just in a cursory way. Permission to digitize, transcribe and display is gratefully acknowledged.

• Calypso (HMCo-made index card)
• Calypso (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: Calypso
Type: J & M
Length: 15'9"
Owner: Oldenburg, J. A.

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

• Calypso
• Calypso
• 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: Calypso
Type: 16' 6" cat
Owner: J. A. Oldenberg
Year: 1872 [sic, i.e. 1889]
Row No.: 98

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.

"Note: John A. Oldenburg, for whom #403s Calypso was built, was married in 1885 to Mary Melville de Marini (N1), the oldest daughter of N. G. Herreshoff's friend George de Marini (who in 1879 had bought N. G. Herreshoff's catboat #187803es Sabrina, later exported to Finland). Oldenburg was originally from Wiborg, Finland (N2). In the 1890s, Oldenburg lived in Finlayson, Minn. where he was chairman of the town (N3) and where the house he built still stands (N4). John [Johan] Oldenburg may have been related to Hampus Julius Oldenburg (March 28, 1819 in Stockholm, Sweden - February 18, 1876 Wiborg, Finland), a Swedish-born merchant who in 1851 founded the famous match factory in Pori, Finland, but later went bankrupt and had to emigrate to St. Peterburg before finally moving back to Wiborg (N5).
George de Marini was married to Anne Cecilia Downer who was part of the De Wolf family --- as was Clara De Wolf Herreshoff, N. G. Herreshoff's first wife.
N1: See (http://www.ebooksread.com/authors-eng/david-r-david-robinson-downer/the-downers-of-america--with-genealogical-record-nwo/page-7-the-downers-of-america--with-genealogical-record-nwo.shtml, retrieved June 1, 2011.
N2: See http://www.archive.org/stream/charlesdwolfofgu00perr/charlesdwolfofgu00perr_djvu.txt, retrieved June 1, 2011.
N3: See http://www.archive.org/stream/annualreportchi02wardgoog/annualreportchi02wardgoog_djvu.txt, retrieved June 1, 2011.
N4: See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Register_of_Historic_Places_listings_in_Pine_County,_Minnesota, retrieved June 1, 2011.
N5: See http://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hampus_Julius_Oldenburg, retrieved June 1, 2011." (Source: van der Linde, Claas. June 1, 2011.)

"Note: This boat is listed in the HCR as having a waterline of 16ft 8in because it was usually described as a 16ft 8in sailboat even though the construction record lists a waterline of only 15ft 9in. The construction plan shows it was intended to be rigged as either a catboat or a sloop and had two maststeps." (Source: van der Linde, Claas. June 16, 2020.)

"Built in 113 days (contract to launch; equivalent to $4/day)." (Source: van der Linde, Claas. January 16, 2024.)

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