HMCo #880s Josephine

"[1923-05-27] Sun 27: [Thermometer] 54 [to] 67 [to] 53 [degrees]. Fine. L[igh]t N [wind in] a.m. SSW [wind in] p.m. Tried one of the new 15 footers [Watch Hill 15 #880s-#890s].
[1923-06-03] Sun 3: Fair & mild L[igh]t r[ain in] p.m. Short sail in 15 footer [Watch Hill 15 #880s-#890s] with Ann & Chs. Nystrom. ...
[1923-06-15] Fri 15: [Thermometer] 54 [to] 64 [to] 58 [degrees]. R[ain] with l[igh]t NE [wind] early. Part[ly] overcast, l[igh]t SE & S [wind in] p.m. ... Chs. Nystrom delivered 1st Watch Hill 15 footer [Watch Hill 15 #880s-#890s]." (Source: Herreshoff, Nathanael G. Diary, 1923. Manuscript (excerpts). Diary access courtesy of Halsey C. Herreshoff.)

"Also in 1899, the Buzzards Bay Fifteen Footers started, first with an order of seven, but augmented to seventeen. This class has been added to for thirty-one years, so there have been about eighty built." (Source: Herreshoff, N. G. "Some of the Boats I Have Sailed In." Written 1934. In: Pinheiro, Carlton J. (ed.). Recollections and Other Writings by Nathanael G. Herreshoff. Bristol, 1998, p. 67.)

"... Summer residents at Watch Hill will race a new class of 15-footers this coming season. Herreshoff is finishing the last of a fleet of 11 boats, whose owners have homes in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, and several other cities, including Pawtucket and Providence. The boats are very similar to the Herreshoff Buzzards Bay 15-footers. ..." (Source: Anon. "Notes From The Week's Log." Boston Globe, May 13, 1923, p. 65.)

"1923. ... The yards were busy. Herreshoff was building a class of 11 [#882s Shanendowa, #880s Josephine, #881s Miss Q., #883s Thistle, #884s Fantasy, #885s Viking I, #886s Alert, #887s Pixie, #888s How Come, #889s Althea, #890s Tobasco] of the 15-foot waterline combination keel and centerboard knockabouts for members of the Watch Hill Yacht Club, and putting the modern jib headed, so-called Marconi rig on them, and also had on the stocks the 98-foot steel schooner Wildfire [#891s] for Charles L. Harding of Boston, a 65-foot twin screw cruiser [#380p Esmonda] for Clarence Whitman of New York, and a class Q sloop [#892s Grayling] for J. P. Morgan. ..." (Source: Davis, Jeff. Yachting in Narragansett Bay. Providence, 1946, p. 17.)

"1940. ... At the clubs, ... Senorita [won] in the Herreshoff 15's at Watch Hill ..." (Source: Davis, Jeff. Yachting in Narragansett Bay. Providence, 1946, p. 98.)

"In 1995, James 'Ding' Schoonmaker became a member of the [Herreshoff Marine Museum's] Nathanael Greene Herreshoff Society with a donation of $100,000 for boat restoration. Ding, a champion Star Class sailor, designated the majority of his fund for the restoration of Herreshoff one-design classes.
Firefly, a Watch Hill 15 built in 1922, is the first yacht to be restored by the James M. Schoonmaker Fund, McClave, Philbrick, and Giblin completed her restoration late this spring and she promptly won an award at the Wooden Boat Show in Mystic. ..." (Source: Anon. "James M. Schoonmaker Fund." Americas Cup Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony Program, Herreshoff Museum, September 13, 1997, p. 17.)

"The Herreshoff Manufacturing Company built FIREFLY, a 24ft 8in Watch Hill 15, in 1921. At the request of The Herreshoff Marine Museum in Bristol, Rhode Island, McClave, Philbrick & Giblin have given the old sloop their 'typical 100,000-mile rebuild.' They replaced all frames, some planking, the floors, the transom, the centerboard trunk, and the bulkheads." (Source: Anon. "Launchings and Relaunchings." Wooden Boat #142, May/June 1998, p. 117.)

"Firefly. Ex-Josephine. Watch Hill 15 Class. HMC 880. In 1922 members of the Watch Hill Yacht Club, seeking to establish a new racing class ordered eleven marconi-rigged centerboard sloops. Josephine built for F. L. Jenks was the first of the class. The WH15, an open sailboat with long overhang, is similar to the ealrier Newport 15 and the shallower keel/gaff-rigged Buzzards Bay 15 built from 1899 onwards. It is a superlative daysailer and racing boat, good at ghosting in light airs with her low wetted surface, yet also a powerful sailer when heeled onto her long overhang. Beginning in the summer of 1923 the fleet began a spirited competition lasting almost fifty years.
In the 1960s a new fiberglass boat was built using the hull of #880 (then named Movable Feast) for the mold. The wooden boats gradually moved out of racing. In 1974 the Muenchinger Brothers purchased #880, naming her Firefly. They carefully maintained and sailed her for another twenty years. In her 71st year Firefly was given to the Museum by Charlton and son Charles Muenchinger in memory of Charlton's brother Herman.
LOA 24ft 5in
LWL 15ft 6in
D 2ft (Board up)
HMC #880
[Acc. no.] 94.880
1931." (Source: Herreshoff Marine Museum. [Plaque on display at the museum.] Bristol, RI, no date [ca. 2005].)

"Except for their sail plan, [the Watch Hill 15s] are very much like the Buzzards Bay 15s... The Marconi rig was widely accepted after about 1920 as being more aerodynamically efficient to windward than the gaff rig. It was also somewhat simpler to use, since the mainsail could be hoisted and lowered with only a single halyard. Because there was no gaff and no throat halyard, the building cost for the Watch Hill boats must have been a little less than for the standard 15-footers. In any event, the new boats were given pointed coamings as well as pointed sails, and were delivered to the Watch Hill Yacht Club for the 1923 season. There were eleven boats, all identical and all using the #503-class molds of 1899.
A good boat is a good boat no matter how old its design, and the sailors of Watch Hill understood this in 1922. They came to the same realization again in the mid-1960s when they sponsored more new boats of the same hull design, this time in fiberglass, and with even taller and more modern rigs. The class today, now made up mostly of these new boats, is still active. But going strong as well, although no longer a part of the racing fleet, are a number of the original boats. Often, wooden 15-footers have ended up in nearby Noank, Connecticut, a veritable wooden boat mecca. ..." (Source: Bray, Maynard and Carlton Pinheiro. Herreshoff of Bristol. Brooklin, Maine, 1989, p. 158.)

"[Item Description:] Herreshoff Manufacturing Company, Inc. Tentative Financial Statements for the Period from January 1, 1923 to June 27, 1923. Tentative Comparative Balance sheet as at June 27, 1923 and December 31, 1922. Tentative Statement of Profit and Loss for the Period of January 1, 1923 to June 27, 1923. Including detailed profitabilty statements for several contracts including #380p ESMONDA (C. Whitman), Watch Hill 15s (#880s JOSEPHINE, #881s MISS Q., #882s SHANENDOWA, #883s THISTLE, #884s FANTASY, #885s VIKING I, #886s ALERT, #887s PIXIE, #888s HOW COME, #889s ALTHEA, and #890s TOBASCO), #891s WILDFIRE (C.L. Harding), #892s GRAYLING, 12 1/2-footers #893s COMET Jr. and #894s WREN" (Source: Lybrand, Ross Bros. & Montgomery Accountants (creator). Financial Statement. Halsey C. Herreshoff Collection at the Herreshoff Marine Museum Item MR_50550. Subject Files, Folder [no #], formerly 124?. 1923-07-02.)
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"[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 #880s Josephine even if just in a cursory way. Permission to digitize, transcribe and display is gratefully acknowledged.

• Cheever, David. "The Herreshoff Fifteens." The Log of Mystic Seaport, v. 24, No. 2., Summer 1972, p. 38-44. (106 kB)
  Document is copyrighted: Yes. Short class history, detailed vessel description and appreciation and a thrilling account of a typical race of Buzzards Bay 15 at the Beverly Yacht Club. Special focus on #554s Fiddler ex-Nora, now in the collection of Mystic Seaport Museum.
• Brainerd, Alec with Bernard H. Gustin and Steven K. Nagy. "The Herreshoff 15 is Alive and Well." In: Herreshoff Marine Museum (Publisher). Proceedings. The Classic Yacht Symposium 2010. Bristol, R.I. 2010. (5,834 kB)
  Document is copyrighted: Yes. Copyright holder: Alec Brainerd, Bernard H. Gustin, Steven K. Nagy / Herreshoff Marine Museum. Class history, construction and restoration comments, building and sailing a replica, detailed class register (including replicas). Photos, drawings.
• van der Linde, Claas. "Herreshoff 15-Footers: Building Dates and Model Variations." December 7, 2021. (380 kB)
  Document is copyrighted: Yes, used with permission. Copyright holder: Claas van der Linde. Tabular summary of Herreshoff 15-footer construction dates and model variations. Together with information of BB15 sail numbers, boat names and boat owners from various year books of the Beverly Yacht Club.
• Avery, Bruce. [No title. List of Herreshoff Watch Hill 15 Footers.] Unpublished manuscript, ca. 1994. (95 kB)
  Document is copyrighted: Yes. Copyright holder: Bruce Avery. Summary accounting of the Watch Hill 15s built by HMCo and their subsequent owners, providing boat names, hull and sail numbers, original and subsequent owners and homeport in 1994. Reflecting the knowledge up to ca. 1994.

• Josephine and other BB15 class (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: Josephine
Type: J & M
Length: 15'
Owner: Jencks, F. L.

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

• Josephine
• 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: Josephine
Type: 15' J & M
Owner: F. L. Jenks
Row No.: 324

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: Sept.
Day: 07
Year: 1922
E/P/S: S
No.: 0880
Name: Josephine
LW: 15
B: 6' 9"
D: 2' 3"
Rig: J & M
CB: y
Ballast: Lead
Amount: 1533.00
Notes Constr. Record: 1923 delivery.
Last Name: Jenks
First Name: F. L

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.

"Watch Hill 15s had a shallower keel [of 2 feet 3 inches], a marconi rig, a coaming that comes to a point at the front of the cockpit, and an ever-so-slightly higher freeboard compared to the regular Buzzards Bay 15s." (Source: Nagy, Steve. June 1, 2008.)

"Sail No. 3." (Source: Nagy, Steve. http://www.herreshoffregistry.org/detail.php?hull=880, retrieved August 19, 2010.)

"Donated in 1994 by Charlton & Charles Muenchinger (in memory of Herman Muenchinger) to the Herreshoff Marine Museum." (Source: van der Linde, Claas. March 8, 2012.)

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