HMCo #432s Viola

"[1893-06-10] Sat 10: Launched #432 [Viola]. ...
[1893-06-11] Sun 11: Navahoe [#429s] sailed from Newport to England. Went to Newport in #432 [Viola]." (Source: Herreshoff, Nathanael G. Diary, 1893. Manuscript (excerpts). Herreshoff Marine Museum Collection.)

"Miss Sutton, owner of Wee Win, has ordered a 1-rater [#431s Mirwena (Morwena)], a fin-keel, and another [#436s Bubble] has been ordered by an Austrian yachtsman. There is also a 17ft. l.w.l. centerboard racer [#432s Viola] for an unknown owner [Howard Marston]." (Source: Anon. "Building." Forest and Stream, January 19, 1893, p. 61.)

"... At the head of his shop Mr. [J. Manley] Crosby has a little long-ended sixteen-footer --- 24 feet on top and 8 feet beam --- with which he hopes to lower the colors of the Herreshoff cat Viola, the queen of Nine Mile Pond. Although it will take more sail to drive this boat than the Viola, Mr. Crosby thinks that, as she is 2 feet shorter on the water line, he will have no allowance to pay, and he has his ends so low that she will practically be a longer boat than the Viola when she begins to sail. [Viola was raced on Cape Cod on Wequauquet Lake, also known as Chequaquet Lake, Great Pond or Nine Mile Pond.]" (Source: Anon. "Many New Catboats. The Crosbys Building Fast Craft." New York Times, March 29, 1895, p. 7.)

"[For sale] No. 2680. --- Catboat Viola; built by Herreshoff; 18 feet 10 inches over all, 17 feet 9 inches water line, 7 feet 4 inches beam; sail area about 350 square feet; built for racing on an inland lake. Is very fast and perfectly balanced. She is built of five-eights cedar, deck finished bright, sides painted white, and is a beautiful piece of workmanship. Original cost $750. The boat is at Centerville, Cape Cod, Mass. Price $250, which includes oars, lead ballast, and an Eldredge trim gauge. Address Howard Marston, 25 Brattle Street, Boston, Mass." [Marston had taken delivery of #491 Violet, his new Herreshoff catboat in 1898 and was now advertising his old boat.] (Source: Rudder March 1899, p. 131.)

"Wequaquet Lake. The small cat-boat races have held the attention of lovers of the sport all summer. The Herreshoff crack, the Violet, owned by Mr. Howard Marston, has proved herself the queen of the fleet, winning nearly every race with ease. ... The Violet has won the Wequaquet Lake cup for the third consecutive summer." (Source: Anon. "All 'Long Shore. Centreville." Barnstable Patriot, September 10, 1900, p. 2.)

"[Item Transcription:] [Penciled list of sailing boats built by HMCo in the winter of 1892/1893:]
428 [#428s] MERRY THOUGHT. 25ft w.l. Cat. Crozer
429 [#429s] NAVAHOE. 84ft w.l. Sloop. Carroll
430 [#430s] BONNIE DOON. 30ft w.l. Sloop.
431 [#431s] MORWENA. 1 Rater. England
432 [#432s] VIOLA. 176t w.l. Cat. Boston
433 [#433s] MOJAVE. 20ft w.l. Cat. Murray
434 [#434s] KITE. 20ft w.l. J[ib] & M[ainsail]. Peet
435 [#435s] COLONIA. 85ft w.l. Sydicate
436 [#436s] BUBBLE. 1 Rater. One-Rater. Sail New Draft. Austria
437 [#437s] VIGILANT. 85ft w.l. Sydicate
438 [#438s] MENEEN. 2 1/2 Rater. Jackson." (Source: Herreshoff, N.G. (?) (creator). Penciled List. Halsey C. Herreshoff Collection at the Herreshoff Marine Museum Item MRDE03_04410. Folder [no #]. No date (1893-07 or later).)
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Note: This list of archival documents contains in an unedited form any and all which mention #432s Viola even if just in a cursory way. Permission to digitize, transcribe and display is gratefully acknowledged.

• Grayson, Stan. Herreshoff Catboats. The Roots of a Boatbuilding Dynasty." Wooden Boat #289, November/December 2022, p. 58-67. (1,855 kB)
  Document is copyrighted: Yes. Detailed, well-written story about Herreshoff catboats, from early boats such as Sprite and the four Julias which were all built before the founding off the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company to the numerous small catboats like Dandelion and Bluebell, many of which were delivered to Boston yachtsmen and most of which were also built before the founding of HMCo to the later, often very extreme and rule-beating catboats such as Wanda. With some minor errors, not all Julias were keelboats, Dexter Stone was from Philadelphia and not just a local yachtsman, Peri was not built for W. Starling Burgess, and Bluebell was built for Ed. Burgess with no proof that this was Edward Burgess.

• Viola (HMCo-made index card)
• Viola (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: Viola
Type: Cat
Length: 17'
Owner: Marston, H.

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

• Viola
• 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: Viola
Type: 17' cat
Owner: H. Marston
Row No.: 724

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.

Month: Oct
Day: 3
Year: 1892
E/P/S: S
No.: 0432
Name: Viola
LW: 17'
B: 7' 4"
D: 1' 4"
Rig: Cat
CB: y
Ballast: Lead
Amount: $750.00
Notes Constr. Record: part ballast inside D.407
Last Name: Marston
First Name: H.

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.

"Howard Marston was a restaurant owner in Boston. He also owned extensive shore line property near Barnstable on Nine Mile Lake, Cape Cod's largest lake. In 1891, when helping to sponsor a regatta on this lake, Marston was instrumental in having it renamed from Nine Mile Lake to Wequaquet Lake. Marston's racing catboat #432s Viola was the 'queen of the lake' until it was replaced in 1899 by #491s Violet." (Source: van der Linde, Claas. March 30, 2015.)

"Built in 250 days (contract to launch; equivalent to $3/day)." (Source: van der Linde, Claas. January 16, 2024.)

Sail area from for-sale ad in Rudder March 1899, p. 131.

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