HMCo #1074s Sheerness

"[1928-06-14] Thu 14: Fine with SSW [wind]. Fresh in p.m. Harold Vanderbilt here and he asked me to go out with him in Prestige [#1058s]. Later I also went out in Ch[arles] Nystrom's [A. S. deW Herreshoff's?] new design, the 55 ft wl 'Sheerness' [#1074s]. She appeared to move well and [was] very able." (Source: Herreshoff, Nathanael G. Diary, 1928. Manuscript (excerpts). Diary access courtesy of Halsey C. Herreshoff.)

"... Herreshoff's yard, Bristol, is busy with the construction of four large cruising yachts. The largest of the quartet is the 150-foot cruising power boat [#385p Vara] for former Commodore Harold S. Vanderbilt, while the 105-foot yawl [#1078s Thistle] for Robert E. Tod is the largest of the two sailing craft. The other power yacht is a 70-foot cruising boat [#384p Shuttle] for Junius S. Morgan Jr. The fourth yacht is an 82-foot Class M sloop [#1074s Sheerness] for a Cleveland yachtsman, a member of the New York Yacht Club. This sloop is not for racing and is to have a gasoline engine for auxiliary power. ..." (Source: Anon. "Yachts and Yachtsmen." Boston Globe, January 29, 1928, p. 53.)

"... At the Herreshoff Company shops two top of the class 'M' boats, Prestige [#1058s] and Valiant [designed by Burgess, Rigg & Morgan designed and built by A&R in Germany], are being stripped and will be hauled out this week and the mahogany yacht Sheerness [#1074s], built last winter for Marshall Sheppey and used by him around Nantucket this summer, is due to arrive for hauling out the first of the month. ..." (Source: Anon. "New Marine-Railway At Herreshoff Plant. Contract Awarded to Build Additional Hauling Out Facilities at Foot of Burnside Street." Bristol Phoenix, August 28, 1928, p. 2.)

"Many yachts are being laid up at the Herreshoff Company's yards at Walker's Cove. ... In other sheds at the cove yards are three boats of the Jamestown, R. I Triangle Class, Arrow, Cub and Metik, two yachts of the M Class of sloops Valiant and Sheerness [#1074s], and the yacht Chanty. ..." (Source: Anon. "Many Yachts Being Laid Up For Winter. Herreshoff Company and S. C. Wardwell Busy Storing Boats At the Yards in This Town." Bristol Phoenix, October 5, 1928, p. 1.)

"A unique power installation is found in the auxiliary cruiser Sheerness, built by Herreshoff Mfg. Company at Bristol, Rhode Island, for Marshall Sheppey of Toledo, Ohio, a late addition to the New York Yacht Club fleet.
One of the customary stumbling blocks in the path of the boat designers is the fact that the owner will hardly yield the space to the power units. The owner will have as much room as the designer will allow for cabins, galley, etc. It is necessary for the architect to use every available cubic inch to its greatest utility. On this score, the designers of Sheerness have very successfully met this problem. The power plant, a Scripps G-6, is located beneath the work table in the galley and is entirely out of the way. It is accessible by merely raising the hinged table top. Sheerness was designed as an able cruising vessel, but sufficiently fast to participate in the yacht club runs and races and to that end was built with steel frames and double mahogany planking, moderately heavy keel, all ballast being outside. Her length over all is eighty-two feet, and fifty-five feet at the water line, a beam of sixteen feet, and a draft of ten feet, five inches. Although she did not race during the past season, her performances under sail have been most satisfactory. The Scripps motor turning a Herreshoff two-blade folding 26x14 wheel, eleven hundred r.p.m., drives her at ten miles per hour, which is unusually fast for this type of yacht. Her operation under power is very smooth and light." (Source: Anon. "An Able Auxiliary." Motor Boating, December 1928, p. 110.)

"The accident at the Herreshoff Company's piers a week ago when the new mast of the cup defender Resolute [#725s] was broken off 15 feet from the deck and in falling took down the big shears at the head of the north pier besides damaging Harold S Vanderbilt's new steel cruising yacht Vara's [#385p] launches [#386p and #387p] and upper deck while a serious setback might have been a whole lot worse. ...
The main boom of the sloop Sheerness [#1074s] which was on the wharf when the mast fell was broken but the firm has a span boom which can be used until a new one can be made and shipped to her and as Herreshoff have chartered a lighter with shears aboard to carry on the work until the new shears are erected there will be no delay in fitting out boats as were slated to be rigged before the middle of this month.
The auxiliary sloop yacht Sheerness built by the Herreshoff Co. and launched a year ago from the shops which is now owned by John J Raskob has been overhauled and sent away to Wilmington Del for her new owner who was prominent in the Presidential election last fall and is now connected with the United States Rubber Co. The yacht is 82 feet overall and 54 feet on the waterline. She was formerly owned by Marshall Sheppey of New York and has been housed at Walker's Cove during the winter. ..." (Source: Anon. "Yachts At Herreshoff's." Bristol Phoenix, May 3, 1929, p. 3.)

"... The 82-foot auxiliary sloop Shearness, recently sold by Marshall Sheppey of Cleveland to John J. Raskob of New York, was launched at Herreshoff's lower yard last Tuesday [April 30, 1929]. She was designed and built by Herreshoff last year and except for the auxiliary engine probably would make a good showing against the other sloop of class M if raced. The main boom of the Shearness, which was on the wharf when the [#725s] Resolute's mast fell, was broken, but Herreshoffs have a spare boom which can be used until a new one can be made and shipped. The Shearness is to fit out at once and leave Bristol for Baltimore. ..." (Source: Anon. "Yacht Yards South of Boston Busy With New Work And Fitting Out." Boston Globe, May 5, 1929, p. A63.)

"... Sheerness, purchased a couple of months ago by John J. Raskob from Marshall Sheppey of Toledo, O, has been renamed Patsy. This 55-foot waterline auxiliary sloop, built at Herreshoff last year, is very similar to design to the Class M cutters Valiant and Prestige and probably could give a good account of herself under sail against the 'M' boats except for propellor. ..." (Source: Fowle, Leonard M. "Resolute And Vanitie Enter Seventh Season of Racing." Boston Globe, June 9, 1929, p. B21.)

"1928. ... There was a mid-Winter launching of an M class sloop that had been ''hush-hush' while she was being built as far as ownership was concerned. She was for a 'western yachtsman who would use her in Vineyard Sound' was the best spoken information obtainable about her, but the packing cases in the shop addressed to Marshall Sheppey, Yacht Sheerness, Herreshoff Manufacturing Company, gave the secret away. (She was later sold to John J. Raskob, who renamed her Patsy, and has been laid up at Warren until recently, one of the three yachts that John Silva bought to put into the Cape Verde packet trade.) ..." (Source: Davis, Jeff. Yachting in Narragansett Bay. Providence, 1946, p. 37, 39.)

"Remember Sheerness, that big sloop that Herreshoff built for Marshall Sheppey in 1929, now owned by John J. Raskob? John Silva, of Providence, who also bought Bob Emmons' famous old Avenger [#666s] from the wreckers after the 1938 hurricane, has bought Sheerness, otherwise Patsy, and plans to make her the first of a packet line between Providence and the Cape Verde Islands ..." (Source: Anon. [Title?] Yachting, Vol 68, 1940, p. 90?)

"... In the meantime Frank Silva and his brother John, noting the awakened interest in a Cape Verde packet service bought the old auxiliary sloop Patsy [#1074s] at New London and had her towed to Providence for refitting, as the first boat of a proposed new line. The sloop, a former Class M racer, was built by Herreshoff, at Bristol, in 1928, and measured 82 feet over all with a beam of 15 feet. At about the same time the brothers bought Avenger [#666s], another Herreshoff sloop which had been built back in 1907. The Silvas figured they could convert the boats to carry 20 or 25 tons of freight and as many as a dozen passengers each, and counted heavily on fast passages. Refitting work was well under way when the United States entered the war. Several fittings from Vanitie, Weetamoe, Yankee and Ranger, were worked into the refitting of both boats, and the mast from Shimna [#694s], once owned by Chandler Hovey, of Boston, was to go into Patsy, when the Government clamped down on all such ventures.
Future prospects are not too bright. Many there are who believe the Providence to Cape Verde packets will not return to the Atlantic sea lanes. The Providence Portuguese colony well remembers the old schooners aboard which they traveled to this new land. ..." (Source: Anon. [Title?] Yachting, Vol 75, 1944, p. 108?)

"1940. ... John Silva bought three old Herreshoff sloops, the Avenger [#666s], Patsy [#1074s] and Shimna [#694s], with the intention of starting a packet line from Providence to the Cape Verde Islands, but the war prevented that and two of them, Avenger and Patsy, have been laid up at Warren ever since. ..." (Source: Davis, Jeff. Yachting in Narragansett Bay. Providence, 1946, p. 96-97.)

"[Item Description:] Penciled sketch of sections titled '#1074 SHEERNESS'." (Source: MIT Museum, Hart Nautical Collections, Haffenreffer-Herreshoff Collection Item HH.6.026. Sketches. Oversize Folder, Folder Hull No. 1074s. No date (1927 ?).)
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"[Item Description:] Handwritten displacement calculations for #1074s SHEERNESS." (Source: MIT Museum, Hart Nautical Collections, Haffenreffer-Herreshoff Collection Item HH.6.026. Caclulations. Box HAFH.6.1B, Folder Hull No. 1074s. No date (1927-08 ???).)
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"[Item Description:] Typed 'Specifications For A 54ft 8in W.L. Sloop [#1074s SHEERNESS]'. Also mentioning two small boats (#192801ep Power Tender for #1074s SHEERNESS and #192804es Dinghy for #1074s SHEERNESS). With penciled note in upper margin 'Drafting Room. #1074.' 6 pages." (Source: MIT Museum, Hart Nautical Collections, Haffenreffer-Herreshoff Collection Item HH.6.026. Specifications. Box HAFH.6.1B, Folder Hull No. 1074s. No date (1927-08-02).)
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"[Item Transcription:] I was very glad to have your letter of February 14th, and to feel that you had some sympathy for my troubles in getting steel and bronze for the metal boats [#1078s THISTLE and #1074s SHEERNESS]. It finally arrived and we are now working overtime getting the steel in place.
Mr. Tod is of course somewhat uneasy, but considering that we have practically all of the interior ready for him, also the decking, deck erections, rig and rigging, etc., he is so far very nice about the delay and of course I don't expect any troubles in finishing his boat [#1078s THISTLE] at the beginning of May, which should be early enough.
He is all wrought up about the coming summer and considering what a dismal summer he had last year and how nice he has treated us, we certainly all hope that he will get a very satisfactory boat and that the saying will come true that the KATOURA [#1050s] was his folly of 1927 and that the new boat will be his ketch of 1928.
Mr. Sheppey's boat [#1074s SHEERNESS] is overboard and out in the Yard under cover in the new Shed, and we are finishing her up as fast as we can. The same thing is the case with Mr. Morgan's boat [#384p SHUTTLE], and we are now laying the keel for Mr. Vanderbilt's boat [#385p VARA] according to your suggestion, that is, parallel with our slip so that she will be water-borne at the stern before the aftermost cradle leaves the slide. This will of course put an enormous strain on the forward slide but the under pinning being almost new we don't expect any troubles, besides that the boat won't be launched before you arrive in Bristol, and no doubt you will give us necessary advice of how to go about the launching.
As far as new boats are concerned, that is building stock boats to keep our carpenters going, I would like to say that your suggestion of building an additional Fisher's Island 31-Footer is very good, but it has its drawbacks because we have already one of these boats [#1061s KESTREL] in the yard, and one of the last year's boats [apparently #1055s JUDY which changed owners prior to the 1928 sailing season] is for sale for considerable less money than we charge for a new boat. Besides that it seems that people are not so keen about getting perfectly well behaved, roomy boats as some kind of narrow canoes that appeal to the eye. It is really pitiful to see in what direction [p. 2] the present boat designing is heading. It is long, narrow, extremely expensive boats without any accommodations whatsoever, for instance you will remember the PRESTIGE [#1058s] which with her 80-feet over all and 54 1/2-Ft. waterline had only one main cabin and one double stateroom. This is of course all right for a man with Mr. Vanderbilt's purse, but it practically puts everybody else out of the game, however, let us hope that the pendulum soon will swing the other way, and that the boats instead of being afternoon boats will be real homes on the sea, the way a boat of course should be.
When I was in New York the other day Mr. Nichols showed me some figures computed by Mr. W. K. Shaw and these figures showed plainly what the present cost of running a 50-Footer amounts too, and, believe me or not, but he made it perfectly plain and Mr. Nichols agreed to it, that the cost of running a 50-Footer today amounts to an average of Eighteen Thousand Dollars a year. This is of course something which cannot be kept up forever.
We are making an addition to the gangway between the Mill and the upper part of the North Shop, an addition long enough (25 ft.) so that we can get more space for our cabinet shop, which so far has been very cramped indeed. This addition makes me somewhat uneasy in case of a fire and I have strongly put it to Mr. Haffenreffer that we must install a sprinkler system in the Shops as soon as possible so as to have whatever protection we can get against fire, and I take it that Mr. Haffenreffer will approach the Grinnell people within a few days.
I have done some scouting for more work for the Shop to be started as soon as Mr. Tod's boat leaves the yard, and I have very good hopes of getting one Composite 'M' Boat and a 120-Foot Power Boat, both boats probably will be to outside design. If we can get these two orders and they are reasonably well under way before the first of August I hope to be able to go home to Finland so as to be present with my whole gang when my Mother becomes seventy years old on the first of September, but this is of course only a dream so far and it is very doubtful if it ever will come true. [Neither of these two boats was built.]
The family is in first class shape except for Margaret who still is very tired, and I certainly hope that everything is all right in Cocoanut Grove.
Very truly yours, ..." (Source: Nystrom, Charles. Letter to N.G. Herreshoff. Halsey C. Herreshoff Collection at the Herreshoff Marine Museum Item MR_05940. Correspondence, Folder 21, formerly 141. 1928-02-20.)
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"[Item Description:] Correspondence with two blueprints, rudder and gear, construction plan from Lloyd's Register of Shipping for #1074s SHEERNESS." (Source: MIT Museum, Hart Nautical Collections, Haffenreffer-Herreshoff Collection Item HH.6.026. Correspondence Blueprints. Oversize Folder, Folder Hull No. 1074s. 1928-02-20.)
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"[Item Transcription:] [Handwritten letter:] [Handwritten (in ink) letter on [A. Sidney DeW Herreshoff, Bristol, Rhode island' stationery:] Your letter of Apr. 10th came a few days ago. Time flies so fast that I didn't realize how long it was since I had written you.
Mr. Tod's boat the THISTLE [#1078s] looks very well. They finished laying the deck last week and are now putting on the fittings. The bowsprit is in place, and they made a good job of the work around the stem head. The strut and stuffing box are being fitted. The rudder is nearly finished. The machinery and tanks are being installed. The mainmast is out on the dock with the spreaders and most of the rigging on it, and the other spars are all finished. The new windlass is similar to the one used on the WILDFIRE [#891s] which I believe was originally designed for the 70 footers. All moving parts except the rope drums and ends of the hand crank shaft are enclosed in a bronze casing. The main drive gear extends down through the deck and meshes with a sliding pinion which can be shifted in or out from on deck. The pinion is driven from the motor through an oil tight [p. 2] worm reduction gear. The above deck part of the windlass was completed today and the below deck part is about 80% finished.
Mr. Morgan's boat [#384p SHUTTLE] was launched today and will probably have a trial before the end of the week. Mr. Sheppey's boat [#1074s SHEERNESS] ought to be ready to deliver early in May.
John Nixon started to work on the place yesterday. I think the Spring is neither early nor late this year. The BUBBLE [#285p] was put overboard Apr. 4th and we have already had two Sunday trips.
I find my new car very easy to drive and can go long distances without getting tired. One Sunday afternoon I took a 133 mi ride between dinner and supper. The trip included Fall River, New Bedford, the Cape Cod canal, Plymouth, Biddleborough, Assonet, and Home. April first, I took an all day trip of 184 mi up to the to of Mt. Wachusett, which is about 18 mi north of Worcester. The view from there was certainly worth the trip.
The work on the [Mount Hope] bridge is coming along very fast now.
I am glad you expect to go to Bermuda. The passage on the new motor ship BERMUDA ought to be very interesting.
Sincerely yours, ... " (Source: Herreshoff, Sidney. Letter to N.G. Herreshoff. Halsey C. Herreshoff Collection at the Herreshoff Marine Museum Item MR_06430. Correspondence, Folder 23, formerly 207. 1928-04-17.)
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"[Item Transcription:] [Typewritten signed letter to NGH in Florida on 'Herreshoff Manufacturing Company, Bristol Rhode Island' stationery:] Thank you for your letter of the 25th [April 1928], received this morning.
A photograph was received here, addressed to Mr. Draper in your care at Bristol, R. I., and we wrote Mr. Draper asking whether he wished it forwarded or not. Mr. Draper sent us a note saying that the address was correct and we therefore forwarded the photograph to him.
In accordance with your instructions I will deliver all your second-class mail after May first to Sidney, and the first class mail I will hold for your instructions after May 5th.
Mr. Morgan's 70-Foot Motor Boat [#384p SHUTTLE] is leaving today as soon as the weather is fit; Mr. Tod's new boat [#1078s THISTLE] is scheduled for launching next Thursday; Sheppey has been quite ill and has postponed the launching of his new boat [#1074s SHEERNESS] for a few days; BLACKSHEAR formerly the KATOURA [#1050s], is outfitted and is leaving here today or tomorrow; The LYNX [#307p] has been sold to Bradford Ellsworth and is being taken over to Lawley's Yard next Wednesday for the installation of a Sterling Trident Motor; we have got about three-quarters of Mr. Vanderbilt's frames [for #385p VARA] set up and we are very busy.
With all kinds of good wishes to you and
Mrs. Herreshoff, I am
Very truly yours, ..." (Source: Brightman, Thomas. Letter to N.G. Herreshoff. Halsey C. Herreshoff Collection at the Herreshoff Marine Museum Item MR_06630. Correspondence, Folder 23, formerly 207. 1928-04-28.)
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"[Item Description:] Selected penciled scantlings for #1074s SHEERNESS, #666s AVENGER, #520s ATHENE, #1131s ISTALENA and #1058s PRESTIGE. Untitled. Undated (the latest boat on this list, ISTALENA, was contracted for on October 19, 1928)." (Source: Herreshoff, N.G. (creator). Penciled Note. Halsey C. Herreshoff Collection at the Herreshoff Marine Museum Acc. 2004.0001.0343. WRDT04, Folder 30, formerly MRDE09. No date (1928-10 or later).)
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"[Item Description:] HMCo 4-page promotional pamphlet with photos of #1053s PUFFIN ('built by the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company to lines and instructions from her owner' [Junius Morgan]), #385p VARA, #1058s PRESTIGE, #384p SHUTTLE, #377p ARA, [#1074s] SHEERNESS, [#1131s] ISTALENA" (Source: Herreshoff Manufacturing Co. (creator). Pamphlet. Herreshoff Marine Museum Collection Item LIB_6790. HMM Library Rare Books Room (Box 5), Folder 179A. No date (1930).)
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"[Item Description:] Spreadsheet listing original contracts (from 1923 to 1940) by HMCo in the collection of HMM (apparently from the gift of Everett Pearson). Listed boats are: #380p, #381p, #388p, #389p, #391p, #392p, #393p, #395p, #886s, #933s, #934s, #954s, #955s, #962s, #983s, #999s, #1002s, #1017s, #1054s, #1055s, #1057s, #1074s, #1078s, #1122s, #1125s, #1130s, #1131s, #1147s, #1152s, #1153s, #1154s, #1156s, #1157s, #1164s, #1170s, #1173s, #1174s, #1175s, #1175s, #1176s, #1177s, #1179s, #1180s, #1191s, #1192s, #1193s, #1195s, #1196s, #1198s, #1199s, #1200s, #1201s, #1202s, #1203s, #1206s, #1207s, #1208s, #1209s, #1210s, #1211s, #1212s, #1213s, #1214s, #1215s, #1216s, #1217s, #1218s, #1219s, #1220s, #1222s, #1224s, #1236s, #1226s, #1227s, #1228s, #1230s, #1232s, #1234s, #1237s, #1238s, #1240s, #1241s, #1243s, #1244s, #1245s, #1246s, #1247s, #1248s, #1249s, #1250s, #1251s, #1252s, #1253s, #1254s, #1255s, #1256s, #1257s, #1258s, #1259s, #1260s, #1261s, #1262s, #1263s, #1264s, #1265s, #1274s, #1275s, #1277s, #1279s, #1280s, #1281s, #1282s, #1283s, #1284s, #1285s, #1286s, #1287s, #1302s, #1303s, #1315s, #1508s." (Source: Rickson, Norene (creator). Table. Herreshoff Marine Museum Collection Item LIB_4220. HMM Library Rare Books Room (HMCo Contracts), Folder [no #]. No date (2010s ?).)
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Note: This list of archival documents contains in an unedited form any and all which mention #1074s Sheerness even if just in a cursory way. Permission to digitize, transcribe and display is gratefully acknowledged.

• Herreshoff Manufacturing Company. [Contract for #1074s Sheerness, L-Boat (including specifications).] Herreshoff Marine Museum Collection. Bristol, RI, August 2, 1927. (3,078 kB)
  Document is copyrighted: Yes. Copyright holder: Herreshoff Marine Museum. Original building/sales contract. Vessel description, scantlings, payment terms, delivery date. Includes detailed vessel specifications.

• Sheerness (MIT Museum-made index card)
• Sheerness (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: Sheerness
Type: Sloop
Length: 54'
Owner: Sheppey, Marshall

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

• Sheerness
• Patsy ex-Sheerness
• 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: Sheerness
Type: 54' 8" aux. sloop
Owner: Marshall Sheppey
Year: 1928
Row No.: 623

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: 1928
E/P/S: S
No.: 1074
Name: Sheerness
OA: 82'
LW: 54'
Rig: Sloop
K: y
Ballast: Outside Lead
Notes Bray: Also named Patsy for John R. Raceob (?).
Last Name: Sheppey
First Name: Marshall

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.

"Universal Rule Class L." (Source: van der Linde, Claas. March 7, 2009.)

"Sheerness was bought by John J. Raskob in 1928, renamed Patsy and resold by him in 1938." (Source: van der Linde, Claas. Information based on: Anon. "Papers of John J. Raskob (1879-1950)" http://www.hagley.org/raskob/raskob-inventory.pdf, retrieved November 15, 2008.)

"[See also:] Sketches of sections - Specification for 54' 8" w.l. sloop - Displacement lists - Correspondence regarding attached blueprints (2/20/1928). In: Technical and Business Records pertaining to the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company, Series VI, Folder HH.6.26 (Hull No. 1074), Box HAFH.6.1B." (Source: Hasselbalch, Kurt and Frances Overcash and Angela Reddin: Guide to The Haffenreffer-Herreshoff Collection. Francis Russell Hart Nautical Collections, MIT Museum, Cambridge, Mass., 1997, p. 63-79.)

"[See also:] Correspondence (2/20/1928) with two blueprints, rudder and gear, construction plan from Llovd's Register of Shipping - Sketch of sections. In: Technical and Business Records pertaining to the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company, Series VI, Folder HH.6.26 (Hull No. 1074), Box Oversize Documents." (Source: Hasselbalch, Kurt and Frances Overcash and Angela Reddin: Guide to The Haffenreffer-Herreshoff Collection. Francis Russell Hart Nautical Collections, MIT Museum, Cambridge, Mass., 1997, p. 63-79.)

"Note that NGH in his diary entry for June 14, 1928 refers to Sheerness as 'Chs. Nystrom's new design, the 55ft w.l. Sheerness', suggesting that Sheerness was designed by HMCo employee Charles Nystrom, rather than A. S. deW. Herreshoff." (Source: van der Linde, Claas. July 7, 2014.)

"Cost $78,500 and dimensions LOA, LWL, beam & draft from original contract in collection of Herreshoff Marine Museum." (Source: van der Linde, Claas. January 15, 2015.)

"Dates of contract '2nd day of August, 1927 and delivery 'on or about May 1, 1928' from original contract and specifications in collection of Herreshoff Marine Museum." (Source: van der Linde, Claas. January 15, 2015.)

"Built in 273 days (contract to delivered; equivalent to $288/day, 415 lbs displacement/day)." (Source: van der Linde, Claas. January 16, 2024.)

"Sail area 'about 2720 sq. feet' from original contract in the collection of the Herreshoff Marine Museum." (Source: van der Linde, Claas. March 17, 2015.)

"Displacement 'about 1770 cu. feet' from original contract in the collection of the Herreshoff Marine Museum." (Source: van der Linde, Claas. March 17, 2015.)

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