HMCo #908s [Biscayne Bay Class Prototype]

"... Captain Nat was now getting too old to do much work, but he did design a class of small sailboats for the shallow waters of Florida." (Source: Herreshoff, L. Francis. The Wizard of Bristol. The Life and Achievements of Nathanael Greene Herreshoff, together with An Account of Some of the Yachts he Designed. New York, 1953, p. 312.)

"... While in Miami we made several calls on Capt and Mrs N G Herreshoff, who are spending the winter in 'Coconut Grove' a little suburb of Miami, and found them very pleasantly situated. In fact it is an ideal location for a man of Capt Nat's well known retiring and studious disposition. They are living in a bungalow on the shore of Biscayne Bay, with a background of tropical trees and plants , including orange, lemon, banana, cocoanut, grape fruit, avocado, pear, olive, mango, etc. not to mention many varieties of palm trees, or the ever-present mangrove tree, which when left to itself, forms a tangled forest everywhere in Florida. In fact if one did not know the location, it would be hard to realize that back of the jungle there is a clearing near the shore where are located several dwellings. The nearest neighbor of the Herreshoffs is Commodore Munro, who owns all the property, and is an elderly 'sea dog,' who proves to be a very companionable associate for 'Capt. Nat.' He has loaned the used of a good sized work shop to the great yacht designer and here Capt. Nat spends most of his time shaping models of yachts of various sizes and designs. It may be interesting to note that being familiar with the waters of that section Capt. Nat designed and had built at the boat shops here before he left Bristol last fall a little sloop 14 feet over all and five feet beam with a draft of only two feet without the use of the centerboard [#908s Biscayne Bay Class Prototype]. The small draft of the boat is due to the fact that the waters all around Miami are very shallow and one must sail out several miles in order to find 10 or 12 feet of water. Such is the Herreshoff reputation that Capt. Nat had only to show the design of the little racer to his friend the Commodore in order to make a sale and when the boat arrived and was exhibited, various men interested in the 'Adirondack School for Boys,' which is located near Coconut Grove, ordered duplicate boats, until no less than 14 have been constructed at the Herreshoff works here and shipped to Coconut Grove. At the time we were there eleven of these diminutive racers [probably #924s, #925s, #926s, #927s, #928s, #929s, #935s, #936s, #937s, #938s and #946s] had arrived and we had the good fortune to see all of them in action in a race in Biscayne Bay. [This must have been on April 4, 1924 when NGH reported the race in his diary and that he had taken out the Bristol Phoenix writer.]
The boats were sailed by young boys from the school, who proved to be adepts at the sport, so much so that only a few seconds separated the first, second and third boats at the finish line, and the others were not far behind.
We followed the little racers in Cat Nat's 27-foot cruising sloop 'Pleasure,' [#907s] and had a fine opportunity to note the capabilities of the small craft. The owners of the boats have donated the use of them to the boys of the school as a reward of merit for excellence in studies, and the rivalry among the youngsters is keen not only in the class room but on the water. ..." (Source: Anon (J. F. Farrally, owner and editor of the Bristol Phoenix). "The Miami of Today. Sights and Scenes in and About the City as Noted by the Editor During a Month's Stay In That Southern Metropolis." Bristol Phoenix, April 28, 1925, p. 1, 4.)

"[Item Description:] Three sets of penciled pantograph hard-chined hull sections similar to what would two years later be used on #908s Biscayne Bay Class Prototype. On sans-serif 'Herreshoff Manufacturing Company, Bristol, R.I.' stationery. Showing a hard-chined small boat [#192208es Unbuilt 16ft LWL Sailing Skiff] marked 'A original 16ft w.l.', 'B', 'A at 15ft 9in w.l' and a note 'B on other side'. On verso two additional sets of penciled pantograph hull sections marked 'B 16ft w.l.' and 'A after final changes'. Verso is titled 'A from finished model. Sheer raised aft 1 1/2in. Nov[ember] 2, 1922'. With calculations showing the final model A to have a displacement of 31.5cuft = 2000lbs." (Source: Herreshoff, N.G. (creator). Pantograph Hull Sections. Halsey C. Herreshoff Collection at the Herreshoff Marine Museum Item MRDE04_02410. Folder [no #]. 1922-11-02.)
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"[Item Transcription:] Yours, reporting progress in the packing Dept. duly re[ceive]d & noted. With the exception of excessive high tides, apparently augmented by the local fresh N. Easter & possibly more so by the last hurricane which passed up over the eastern Bahamas in a N.E. direction & also helping to back up the Gulf stream, we are going along very satisfactory with our various affairs tho personally hampered with a sore shin[?] which I should keep elevated & quiet. I want to get the ground around the cottage cleaned up, guarded a but & some plants set out so as to look more presentable. Another season will get some filling from the Bay bottom & this annual overflow stopt[?].
The carpenter is now on the screening job & by next weeks end, he will be through & out o the way so we can stain the floors & have them ready for you to move in. Will be interested in the new little boats [#908s Biscayne Bay Class prototype] but [I am] afraid that a 2ft [deep] iron keel would be unpopular down here. This subject is a little hard to work out. First, they should be unsinkable, which air tanks can remedy; and then they should be so far as is possible, unstickable on shoals so that, after my long experience, I come back to the New Haven sharpie & give the subject up.
A good sharpie is the cheapest & best all around craft for both novices & good sailors ever devised, but they must be proportioned [correctly] & [have their] sail[plan] balanced almost exactly right, or they are worthless, and I freely admit that I can't as yet publish a formula for designing them. One can deviate quite a little from correct form in displacement sailing craft and still produce a good boat, but with a sharpie, never. To the best of my knowledge, there is not an A.1.[?] on this Bay. This is a trifle hard on my reputation for there are several of my designs within sight almost, and [they] are well liked, but are not up to what I positively know a sharpie can be as to speed. Not particularly caring for the type myself, but still knowing their extreme capabilities & usefulness. I have neither had call for, or designed enough of them to know what I should [know], and feel rather sore about it. Lets talk about them later. By the way, in my last letter to you I meant to have mentioned a rumor that has eluded me, and which, very possibly, you know all about. That [Aemilius] E. Jarvis, for whom you made alterations in some yacht [#711s VENTURA converted in 1923 for Jarvis into a schooner] which he sailed around to & up the St. Lawrence R[iver] to his home port & published the log [Snider, C. H. J. Adventures of the VENTURE. Toronto, 1923], has gotten into serious financial difficulties, apparently with the Canadian Govt, which I sort of think, may be in no ways criminal, but rather a difference of opinion between them. Uslf[?] I sat down to just write [about] progress & here I am gossiping. 'ALICE,' [Henry] Howard's new ketch, reports to me from Savannah on her way here. Howard writes [that she is] 'perfectly satisfactory in every way & am much pleased'. So am I." (Source: Munroe, R.M. Letter to N.G. Herreshoff. Halsey C. Herreshoff Collection at the Herreshoff Marine Museum Item MR_40420. Correspondence, Folder 83, formerly 102. 1924-11-14.)
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"[Item Description:] Four sets of penciled pantograph hull sections of two different models on sans-serif 'Herreshoff Manufacturing Company, Bristol, R.I.' stationery. Untitled, marked '1924 & 1925'. One set marked '1[st] trial' with no further notes or calculations. Another set marked '2nd trial. 17ft w.l. Sept[ember] 21, 1925' and accompanied by calculations arriving at a displacement of 26.8cuft = 1715lbs and a displacement with ballast of 28.5cuft = 1825lbs. A third set marked '3[rd] trial. Sept[ember] 22 [1925]. Changed to 16ft w.l.' and accompanied by calculations arriving at a displacement of 25.45cuft = 1630lbs and noting weights for keel & ballast and a note 'see over' to refer to a displacement curve on verso. A fourth set shows a different hull, not round bottomed but with hard chines, and is marked '14ft skiffs of 1924-25 [#908s built from Model 717]' and and is accompanied by calculations arriving at a total displacement with ballast of 13.95cuft = 894lbs." (Source: Herreshoff, N.G. (creator). Pantograph Hull Sections. Halsey C. Herreshoff Collection at the Herreshoff Marine Museum Item MRDE04_03420. Folder [no #]. 1925-09-22.)
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Note: This list of archival documents contains in an unedited form any and all which mention #908s [Biscayne Bay Class Prototype] even if just in a cursory way. Permission to digitize, transcribe and display is gratefully acknowledged.

• Biscayne Bay Class Prototype (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.

Type: J & M
Length: 14'
Owner: Herreshoff Mfg. Co.

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

Name: N/A
Type: 14' J & M
Owner: Herreshoff Company
Row No.: 790

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: Nov.
Day: 12
Year: 1924
E/P/S: S
No.: 0908
LW: 14
Rig: J & M
K: y
Notes Constr. Record: Marconi Rig.
Last Name: Herreshoff Mfg. Co.

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.

"Dimensions from construction plan 76-145." (Source: van der Linde, Claas. December 11, 2014.)

"The BB14s did not have a sail track. Instead, the mainsail was bent with a spiraling lace line to the mast below shroud attachment. Above, it was set free flying with the halyard passing through a hole at the top of the mast." (Source: van der Linde, Claas. October 18, 2015.)

"A letter by Tom Brightman of the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company which is dated November 17, 1924, suggests that this skiff, which subsequently became the prototype for the Biscayne Bay 14 skiffs, was initially intended as a small skiff for clubs along the Northeastern Seabord. The letter is addressed to Howard G. Smith, a member of a Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club Committee to evaluate new classes of boats for the club. It was originally accompanied by a blueprint [probably HH.5.05581 (076-145): Construction Plans - Sail Boats: Sailing Skiff 14'-5" x 5'-0" (1924-11-17)] and a colored sketch [HH.5.12244 (148): Construction Plans for Small Sail Boats: 14 ft. Sailing Skiff (1924-11-13)]." (Source: van der Linde, Claas. December 1, 2015.)

"[Sail area 125sqft.]" (Source: Herreshoff, N.G. Penciled table titled '[Time] Allowances of A-Fl [Adirondack-Florida] School Races, Spring 1929'. Halsey C. Herreshoff Collection at the Herreshoff Marine Museum Item MRDE15_01310. Ca. 1929-03.)

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