HMCo #474s Dude

"[1896-04-01] Wed 1: ... No 474 [#474s Dude], 13-1/2' finished.
[1896-05-28] Thu 23: Launched #474 [Dude], 13 1/2'." (Source: Herreshoff, Nathanael G. Diary, 1896. Manuscript (excerpts). Herreshoff Marine Museum Collection.)

"... The first Woods Hole Open Town Regatta was in 1884. There were certainly catboats in that regatta, both, local and outsiders. There were probably numerous spritsails as well, judging by the fact that the Woods Hole Spritsail Explorer was not regarded as any sort of prototype when Crosby built her in 1885. In January 1896, months ahead of the formal organization of the WHYC, H.E. Hibbard ordered the spritsail Dude from Nathanael Herreshoff. She was to be the first Class A boat, a modern racing boat rather than the traditional Woods Hole Spritsail fishing boat. ... Herreshoff's plans show that Dude was of very light construction. A flush lap, or shiplap, method of joining her planks was used because they were too thin to be caulked. It was like making a scarf along the whole length of the planks, painting the edges with varni sh and fastening them together with clenched tacks. Instead of the high coaming of the fishing spritsail, only waterways, looking like little side decks, kept the water out when the boat heeled. Instead of a heavy cast metal mast partner or gate, a spring-loaded pair of wooden arms let the stick drop straight aft.
Dude was built on the moulds of Coquina [#404s], Nathanael Herreshoff's own favorite daysailer. Dude used Coquina's steering method; instead of a tiller there was a continuous rope running through blocks in the transom leading to the back end of the rudder. On the plan, there seems to be a larger rudder with a normal head penciled in. Perhaps it was made for Dude or perhaps it was for Wiz [#498s], a sister boat made for A. C. Harrison in 1898. Eventually Herreshoff built five boats for A.C. Harrison and his brother, Frazier. Wiz was #498 on the Herreshoff list; #499 was the two-time America's Cup defender Columbia. These spritsail boats cost $325, including two sails and two sizes of hollow spars. That is only a little more than the reported cost of the Explorer. ...
There was a penchant at that time for cash prizes and special silver cups. In 1898, A.C. Harrison gave three purses for a spritsail race open to both classes. It was won by Wiz, the new Herreshoff boat described earlier, which belonged to the Harrisons. The breeze was very strong and several boats dropped out. The report said that Wiz beat Dude by over five minutes and that 'clearly demonstrated her superior sailing qualities.' The writer apparently did not know that they were sister boats and there was no difference in their sailing qualities. I think that the difference was Sam Cahoon. Years later Sam Cahoon had a Cape Cod Knockabout called Whiz with the H.
The next extant record of the WHYC is an 1898 yearbook at the Mystic Seaport Museum that had belonged to the Woods Hole artist Franklin Lewis Gifford, later a Commodore of the WHYC. The yearbook includes clubhouse rules, the rules for the 21' and 25' classes, the racing rules and tide tables. Rule XX divides the spritsails into Class A, modern racing type, and Class B, Woods Hole fishing type. Neither type could have more than one sail, mainstay, batten or club. The hoist could not exceed the length of the boat. That length was not stated, but was probably not more than 13 1/2' . The boat had to carry at least 300 Ibs of ballast.
The three Herreshoff Class A boats had no ballast installed. Nevertheless The Enterprise reported that the Dude 'sank like a rock' in about forty feet of water when two students carrying too much sail for the strong tidal current in Woods Hole capsized her. The paper noted that the Herreshoff racer had been the winner of several prizes. She was not wrecked and was raised from the bottom to race again. Her owner's grandson said that Dude was sold to a sailor in Quissett in the 1920s. Just what the ground rules were for the two classes of spritsail boats is a puzzle. Sometimes a Class A boat, usually Dude, sailed with Class B, sometimes winning, sometimes not. Perhaps she was using a smaller sail as a handicap. Several race results give corrected times. In 1898, race results show five boats in Class A and ten in Class B with the Class A boats winning. ..." (Source: Littell, Browne. "Early Days of Racing in Woods Hole." In: Woods Hole Historical Collection (Publisher). Spritsail, Volume 10, Number 2, Summer 1996, p. 18, 20. http://www.woodsholemuseum.org/woodspages/sprtsl/v10n2-EarlyRace.pdf, retrieved February 10, 2011.)

"N/A"

Note: This list of archival documents contains in an unedited form any and all which mention #474s Dude even if just in a cursory way. Permission to digitize, transcribe and display is gratefully acknowledged.

• Dude (HMCo-made index card)
• Dude (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: Dude
Type: Sprit
Length: 13'6"
Owner: Hebbard, H. E.

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

• Dude
• 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: Dude
Type: 13' 6" spritsail
Owner: H. E. Hebbard
Row No.: 173

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: Jan
Day: 24
Year: 1896
E/P/S: S
No.: 0474
Name: Dude
LW: 13' 6"
B: 5' 2"
Rig: Spritse
CB: y
Ballast: None
Amount: $325.00
Last Name: Hubbard
First Name: H. E.

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.

"Built in 125 days (contract to launch; equivalent to $3/day, 6 lbs displacement/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.