HMCo #500s [Dinghy for W. H. Buffington]

"[1899-04-22] Sat 22: White frost. Min [tem[erature] 35deg. Clear & warming, 60deg. Mod[erate] SSW ]wind] in PM. Delivered #500, 12' boat [Dinghy for W. H. Buffington]." (Source: Herreshoff, Nathanael G. Diary, 1899. Manuscript (excerpts). Diary access courtesy of Halsey C. Herreshoff.)

"I want to tell you about the most fascinating interview I have ever had in my 20 plus years selling industries in the three lower New England states.
Through Mrs Audrey Baker Cochrane, the granddaughter of William Henry Buffington, an appointment was arranged for the three of us to sit down and chat; and that we did. Mr Buffington has a wealth of information gained over these past 102 years. He kept my pencil moving, and I have a lot to share with you. It was a most unbelievable pleasure to have found this gentleman (present holder of Bristol's Gold Cane since June 1978) so alert, observant and sprightly. He has some difficulty hearing, but he walked easily around his home. He told me how his father had made house calls with Dr Drury, who lived at the southwest corner of State and High Sts. He was so good medically that he cured many people, and could have been a doctor as well as a druggist. His father, when 12 years old, had to spend a year in the hospital because some boy jumped on his back while he was sliding on State St.
Mr B and the bank had the first two telephones in this town. His neighbors, the Herreshoffs, used Mr B's phone.
Mr B had a dinghy class Herreshoff sail boat. He became very professional with it because the great boat designer Nat Herreshoff chose to sail with him and reveal some of his sailing secrets. He had boats from the age of six. ...
Mr B's father (who died in 1910) started his drug business with a store on State St built in 1867 where County Cleaners is now. He later moved to Hope St where Buffington's Pharmacy is till located in what he considered 'the center of Bristol'. ..." (Source: Walker, James W. "Buffington Recounts Local Lore for Tricentennial." Bristol Phoenix, May 15, 1980, p. 26-27.)

"[Item Transcription:] Typewritten (carbon copy) table titled 'Memorandum' with penciled additions listing boats built 1898/1899 with columns labeled 'No.', 'W.L.', 'Rig', 'To deliver', followed in some cases by penciled data for Boat Name and Actual Delivery Date. Relevant contents:
#500s [DINGHY FOR W. H. BUFFINGTON] [W.L.:] 12ft [Rig:] leg o' mutton. C.B. [To deliver:] About May 1st [1899]. [Note:] Rowing & sailing. Open. [Delivered:] Apr. 23rd [1899]." (Source: Herreshoff Manufacturing Co.. (creator) and Herreshoff, N.G. (creator). Memorandum. Halsey C. Herreshoff Collection at the Herreshoff Marine Museum Item MRDW02_01300. Folder [no #]. No date (1898-04 ?).)
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Note: This list of archival documents contains in an unedited form any and all which mention #500s [Dinghy for W. H. Buffington] even if just in a cursory way. Permission to digitize, transcribe and display is gratefully acknowledged.

• Spritsail for W H Buffington (HMCo-made index card)
• Spritsail for W H Buffington (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: Spritsail
Length: 11'7"
Owner: Buffington, W. H.

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

• Spritsail for W H Buffington
• 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: Spritsail
Type: 11' 7" spritsail
Owner: W. H. Buffington
Row No.: 651

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.

Year: 1899
E/P/S: S
No.: 0500
LW: 11' 7"
B: 4' 6"
D: 8"
Rig: Spritsail
CB: y
Ballast: none
Amount: 175.00
Last Name: Buffington
First Name: W. 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.

"W. H. BUFFINGTON, Registered Pharmacist, No. 135 Hope Street." (Source: Anon. Industries and Wealth of the Principal Points in Rhode Island, being the city of Providence, Pawtucket, Central Falls, Woonsocket, Newport, Narragansett Pier, Bristol & Westerly. New York: A. F. Parsons Publishing Co., 1892, p. 275. http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~rigenweb/articles/96.html, retrieved February 13, 2011.)

"Drawer 75-57 [later renamed 28-15]. Ordered 1899
Buffington #500. Page 144
Waterline 11ft-7in. Beam 4ft-6in. Draft 8in.
Rig: Leg of mutton. Keel or centerboard: Daggerboard.
Note: Like 492 [#492s Dinghy for #493s Jilt]. for W. Buffington. of moulds of sailing tender for str. 164 [#189102es Dinghy for #164p Javelin]. sheer raised." (Source: Anon [Herreshoff Manufacturing Company staff with additions by MIT Museum curators William A. Baker and others]. Vessel Name Index Card from the Series I Catalog Cards, s. v. "Buffington". Francis Russell Hart Nautical Collections, MIT Museum, Cambridge, Mass. No date [ca. 1900 or earlier until ca. 1930s, with later additions by non-Herreshoff staff].)

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