HMCo #1153s Savage

"During these years the class that is usually spoken of as the Fishers Island thirty-one-footers was slowly developing, but as there were not many of them built at once and because there was some variation in them, I do not speak of them as a one-design class. The first of them were straight sailboats with a gaff rig but the later ones were usually auxiliary with leg-o'-mutton rig.
While these yachts were not first designed for racing they have often done well in some of the ocean races and are well-built little ships that have been particularly liked by their owners; and some were built up to about 1935." (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. 306.)

"... In the old Burnside shop the Woodward [sic, i.e. Woodard] 47-foot cruiser [#393p Ariel II] is getting the finishing touches, another of the Fishers Island 31 footers is planked [#1155s Wild Goose, #1154s Qutee or #1153s Savage] and ready to be turned over and set on her keel, and a flock of the little 12 1/2 footers in various stages of completion fill the gallery. ... [#1134s Dolphin, #1135s Windigo, #1136s Breeze, #1137s Bandit, #1138s Quickstep, #1139s Hatasu, #1140s Papillon, #1141s Dawtok, #1143s Gray Gull, #1144s Phantom and #1145s Wee Wunder may have been among the 'flock of 12 1/2 footers'.]" (Source: Anon. "Yachting Writers Visit Herreshoff's Shops." Bristol Phoenix, March 24, 1930, p. 1.)

"Several well-known and moderate- sized racing yachts changed hands yesterday in Spring sales spurred by the balmy weather.
... William T. Gillespie of Stamford sold the Fishers Island class thirty-one-footer Lady Babbie to George Strong of the Larchmont Yacht Club, ..." (Source: Anon. "Racing Yacht Banzai Bought By Mulligan. Approach of Season Is Heralded by Several Other Sales." New York Times, April 11, 1941, p. 28.)

"1930. ... Building interest centered around the Herreshoff plant. With the two aspirants for the America's Cup defense set up side by side in the main shop where so many defenders had been built, there were many attempts at gate crashing to get a look at them, but the plant was closed to visitors, except a few newspaper men, who confined their stories to statements of how the work was progressing without going too much into descriptive detail. Besides Enterprise [#1146s] and Weetamoe [#1147s], Herreshoff was building a 93-foot steel diesel-powered yacht, another Katoura [#391p], for Robert E. Tod, who sold the yawl Thistle [#1078s] built the year before, three of the Fisher's Island 31-foot class sloops [probably #1153s Savage, #1154s Qu Tee and #1155s Wild Goose], one of them for Charles B. Rockwell, the Wild Goose, and some smaller craft. ..." (Source: Davis, Jeff. Yachting in Narragansett Bay. Providence, 1946, p. 48.)

"... In the mid-thirties Concordia's brokerage business took a very rewarding spurt. This was directly due to the Herreshoff-designed class of Fishers Island Sound (F. I. S.) Thirty-one Footers. ... I had occasion to see some of the F. I. S. Thirty-ones under construction and to talk to Sidney Herreshoff, Captain Nat's oldest son, who was mainly responsible for their final form and layout. This came about partly because I had a longtime school and college friendship with Westcote Herreshoff Chesebrough, whose grandmother was Captain Nat's sister. Early on, Herry (or 'Cheese,' as many called him) had the misfortune to lose his mother and then his naval architect father, with the result that he was brought up by his Herreshoff grandmother and then a Herreshoff cousin Julia, both of whom lived in a fine old house close to the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company yard. This gave me the valuable opportunity to visit Bristol and see a bit more of the famous shipyard than would otherwise have been possible.
By the [19] thirties, the Herreshoff family no longer had any financial interest in the yard. (It had been acquired in World War I by a group of businessmen looking for wartime profits. However, the group lacked the experience and qualities that would have made such a venture viable in peacetime. Boatyards seem to take a very special type of management that often is a mystery to the conventional business brain.) As of 1924, Herreshoff Manufacturing Company went into liquidation and most of its assets were acquired at auction by the Haffenreffer brewing family. It was during the Haffenreffer period (Carl Haffenreffer in charge) that the dozen or so F. I. S. Thirty-ones were built.
The F. I. S. Thirty-ones were worthy grown-up sisters of the Newport Twenty-nine Footers and of Captain Nat's own 26-foot centerboard sloop Alerion [#718s]; something of the Herreshoff 12 1/2 and Fish Class showed in them as well. Most of all, they resembled the Newport Twenty-nine Footers, of which Horatio Hathaway's Mischief [#728s] of Padanaram was such an influential example during my upbringing. The F. I. S. Thirty-ones were just enough longer than the Newport Twenty-nines to include the luxury of a really comfortable main cabin with full headroom. Their bow and stern had slightly more overhang and their sternpost was more raked, giving the F. I. S. Thirty-one proportionately longer ends. For the most part, these refinements in model were to the good and seemed to give the boats improved possibilities for competitive racing performance.
The first F. I. S. Thirty-one [#1054s Cyrilla IV] was built in 1926, when many yacht owners still required or employed a paid hand. This was a time when good professionals were available --- and in most cases eager --- for yachting jobs. Fine schoonermen came up from Maine as the coasting trade dwindled. Able seamen from the Scandinavian countries learned that American yachting was more pleasant and profitable than North Sea fishing. Even English sailors who had been trained as professional yacht hands from boyhood found New York and New England yachting jobs attractive: good pay and working conditions; a short season; and American citizenship as perhaps the ultimate lure.
It is axiomatic that yachts are mirrors of their owners' aspirations or expectations, as well as of the economic and social climate in which the yachts and their owners live. So it is quite understandable why the F. I. S. Thirty-ones were laid out with space for a one-man crew forward, and with galley and toilet space amidships. The comfortable owner's cabin was aft, with uppers and lowers for sleeping and with suitable locker space. The enclosed engine room occupied the aft port portion of this master cabin.
With the 1929 stock market crash and all that followed, a number of Fishers Island Sound owners gave up their paid hands and F. I. S. Thirty-ones and bought smaller One Design boats. After all, they used their boats mainly for day sailing and afternoon racing, neither of which required much cabin space, never mind full-time professional help. However, the situation was different in Buzzards Bay. There yacht owners found cruising to be their most enticing weekend occupation. But there, too, the big schooners and ketches and such like that had made sense in affluent times suddenly seemed larger than necessary. So for Buzzards Bay yachtsmen, the F. I. S. Thirty-ones were an ideal compromise. In the mid-1930s I found little difficulty and much satisfaction in transferring about one-half the fleet of F. I. S. Thirty-ones from Fishers Island Sound to our home waters.
... John Parkinson, Sr., bought Praxilla [#1060s ex-Mameena], and his family, especially Jack, Jr., became very good friends and customers. Hendon Chubb bought Savage [#1153s], and I came to know and value his friendship, as I have his son Percy's. In the same way, I got to know well John Stedman, Sr. (who bought Amaranth [#1154s ex-Qutee]), and Joe Knowles (who bought Azura [#1132s]). A bit later I sold two other Thirty-ones --- one [#1132s Caprice ex-Azura] to Brooks Stevens, Jr. [born 1902, son of C. Brooks Stevens, then owner of #955s Marilee], and one [#1166s Last Straw] to Fred Levasseur [sic, i.e. Frederick Jefferson Leviseur] in Marblehead. In both these Thirty-ones we rebuilt the cabins to include a forward stateroom for two and a galley aft by the companionway. With their 31-foot waterline length, this then-new, but now conventional, cabin arrangement was really luxurious: fold-down Concordia berths and all. [Four interior photos of a re-modeled FI-31, possibly #1132s Caprice ex-Azura.]
Although there was plenty of cruising activity, the Saturday F. I. S. racing out of Padanaram was very keen for several seasons. Mr. Chubb [#1153s Savage] was no doubt the most experienced of the owners, and had as a professional Swedish-born Walter Jackson, a brother of Martin, my father's professional on Escape, who was to play such a central role in the future history of Concordia Company. Mr. Stedman's [#1154s Amaranth ex-Qutee] professional was Uku Walter, whom I had first met that rainy day at City Island when Paul Hammond and I inspected Escape; Mr. Stedman himself, a senior executive of Prudential Life, was intensely competitive. Joe Knowles [#1132s Azura] was more easygoing, as was his professional, a local man whom I remember only as 'Andy.'
Although our Thirty-one class usually consisted of only three boats, the occasional special race attracted other competition, and old Jack Parkinson sometimes sailed Praxilla [#1060s] up from the head of the Bay with an all-amateur crew to liven things up. I ended up cruising with old Jack a number of times, and even with just two of us aboard, Praxilla was a joy to handle. No less joyful were Jack's endless stories about bygone times and big yacht racing, in which he had played such a large and happy part. My one complaint about him was his ability to snore. Not even Gene Ashley could beat him in that department.
One other F. I. S. Thirty-one that came over to race with us was Skidoo [#1165s]. She was one of the newer boats and was owned by Pete Haffenreffer, an older brother of Carl. She had a taller, narrower rig than our boats did, which in theory should have made her faster. Perhaps it did make her a more efficient racing boat. However, on our triangular courses and with limited light sails, we usually beat her. For day sailing and weekend cruising an owner is apt to use working sails primarily or even exclusively, and I expect that the old rig under these circumstances kept the boats going faster on the average than the 'modern' one. The same seems to be true with the Herreshoff 12 1/2-Footers, which, on average, seem to do as well or better on most points of sailing with the original gaff rig, instead of the later marconi rig.
Newest, in a word, is not always best. ..." (Source: Howland, Waldo. A Life in Boats. The Years Before the War. Mystic, Connecticut, 1984, p. 186-193.)

"Torch
TORCH, a fine Herreshoff Fisher's Island 31 footer, has been donated to the museum by Toby & Ben Baker.
TORCH (original named SAVAGE) is Herreshoff Hull #1153. Her principal dimensions are: 44 ft LOA, 31 ft LWL, 10' 7" Beam and 6'l" draft. The FI 31s were designed by A. Sidney DeWolf Herreshoff in the early 1930. They raced as a one design class, principally out of Fisher's Island both before and after World War II.
The Talbot Baker family has sailed the yacht for many seasons mostly out of Marion Massachusetts. They participated in both of the museum's Rendezvous regattas in 1981 and in 1984. TORCH was also a participant in many of the Newport 'Classic Yacht Races'.
Both Toby and Ben Baker are life members of the Herreshoff Marine Museum. They recognize the importance of preserving the remaining good examples of the design and construction of boats like the TORCH." (Source: Herreshoff Marine Museum Chronicle, Spring 1985, p. 1.)

"Originally named SAVAGE, TORCH is the seventh of eighteen Fisher's Island Thirty-One Footers built by the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company. SAVAGE was ordered on August 29, 1929 and delivered to Mr. Thomas W. Russell on May 12, 1930, at Fisher's Island.
The Fisher's Island 31 Footer Class dates back to 1926, when Barklie Henry contracted the first one, but earlier Herreshoff designs are the basis for the class. There has always been discussion as to whom the credit should be given for the design. In a taped interview with Maynard Bray and Barry Thomas on October 15, 1975, Sid Herreshoff spoke of the origins of the class when discussing the alterations to the ALERION III model (designed by Captain Nathanael Herreshoff). Mr. Herreshoff explained that the lines of the Fisher's Island 31's were derived from the Newport 29 class, a keel version of SADIE, which was a 1914 improvement on the ALERION III. When asked whether the same model was used for the Fisher's Island 31's, Mr. Herreshoff responded, 'Yes, but the ends were doctored some in the overhangs both forward and aft.' He also added that the lead was further down, making the 31 a little deeper. To Thomas' remark that the Fisher's Island 31 profile was 'changed quite a bit. She's quite a bit longer on deck,' Mr. Herreshoff replied, 'The Fisher's Island 31 Footers were designed when my father was away. I was the one who laid down the boat.' The credit for the design must therefore be shared by the father and son team of Nat and Sid Herreshoff, with the lion's share of the credit going to the son.
As the Great Depression of the 1930's deepened, however, many Fisher's Island 31 owners gave up their paid hands and their 31's and bought smaller one-design yachts. The smaller boats suited their custom of day sailing rather than cruising on Long Island Sound. The situation was very different on Buzzards Bay, where cruising was the norm. By the mid-1930's, about half of the Fisher's Island fleet had transferred to Buzzards Bay.
SAVAGE had a succession of owners and names until the stressful years of the Depression, and then of WWII, passed. In August of 1968 she was purchased by her tenth owners, Toby and Ben Baker, and renamed TORCH. Under their ownership, TORCH cruised to Newfoundland in 1971, as well as the New England waters, and also participated in PHRF races. The Bakers also raced TORCH to wins in the Museum of Yachting Classic Yacht Race and in the Herreshoff Rendezvous regattas of 1981 and 1984.
Toby and Ben Baker donated TORCH to the museum on the day after Thanksgiving in 1984. She was hauled on the same ways where she had been launched over a half century before. In 1997, the Bakers, both life members of the museum, recognizing the importance of preserving the remaining examples of Herreshoff design and construction of boats like TORCH, financed the restoration of this important craft. TORCH stands today much as she would have upon delivery by the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company in 1930. ...
Donated and Restored by Talbot and Benjamin Baker of Wings Neck and South Dartmouth, Massachusetts." (Source: Anon. [Text to accompany display of Torch ex. Savage #1153s on Display at the Herreshoff Marine Museum.] Bristol, ca. 2005.)

"Although the Fishers Island Yacht Club was involved with the Fishers Island 31-footers by virtue of a few of its members owning them, that class does not appear to have been Club-sponsored. One should think of the letters 'FIS' on the sails of these boats as standing for Fishers Island Sound, the body of water in which the boats usually sailed. W. Barklie Henry, of the nearby Watch Hill Yacht Club, originated the idea for such a boat and ordered the first one, Cyrilla IV [#1054s], late in 1926. Three of his friends, thinking that his idea was sound, also ordered boats for 1927 delivery. Except for two others which were built in 1929 and sold elsewhere, the four original boats had things pretty much to themselves for the first three seasons. Then, in 1930, five more boats, some owned in Fishers Island and some in Watch Hill, joined the racing. Cirrus, then Kelpie [#1157s], was the last boat of this second batch and wasn't delivered until late August. ...
The Fishers Island 31-footers, although based on the Newport 29­footers and presumed to have been basically laid down from their offsets, (a blow-up, incidentally, of those for Alerion, had some rather significant changes made from the original model. It is likely that the new profile (longer ends, deeper keel, more raking sternpost, straighter sheer) und deck line to match were established by means of a scale drawing. However, the fairing of the lines to these new end points, according to Sidney Herreshoff, was done right on the mold loft floor - full size. Sidney was a most modest man, reluctant to take complete credit for much of what he did, but he did admit (on a taped interview) that his father was in Florida for the winter while this work was going on and that he, Sidney, was in charge of executing the needed changes. I'd say he did well!" (Source: Bray, Maynard. "A Look at the Class." Woodenboat #34, May/June 1980, p. 34.)

"[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 ?).)
① ② ③ ④

Note: This list of archival documents contains in an unedited form any and all which mention #1153s Savage even if just in a cursory way. Permission to digitize, transcribe and display is gratefully acknowledged.

• Anon. "The Fisher's Island Sound One-Design Class." Yachting, April 1928, p. 96. (686 kB)
  Document is copyrighted: Yes. Fishers Island 31 class description.
• Anon. "Herreshoff Fisher's Island 31-Footers." Rudder, September 1931, p. 57. (800 kB)
  Document is copyrighted: Yes. Fishers Island 31 class description.
• Bray, Maynard. "A Look at the Class." Wooden Boat #34, May/June 1980, p. 42-48. (409 kB)
  Document is copyrighted: Yes, used with permission. Copyright holder: Maynard Bray (text).
• Herreshoff Manufacturing Company. [Contract for #1153s Savage, Fishers Island 31 (including specifications).] Herreshoff Marine Museum Collection. Bristol, RI, September 27, 1929. (2,121 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.

• Savage (MIT Museum-made index card)
• Savage (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: Savage
Type: J & M
Length: 31'
Owner: Russell, Thomas W.

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

• Savage
• 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: Savage
Type: 31' 8" aux. sloop
Owner: T. W. Russell
Year: 1930
Row No.: 598

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: 27
Year: 1929
E/P/S: S
No.: 1153
Name: Savage
OA: 44
LW: 31
B: 10' 7
D: 6' 1
Rig: J & M
K: y
Ballast: Lead
Amount: 16,000.00
Notes Constr. Record: Fis. Island. 31 footer. May 1, 1930.
Last Name: Russell
First Name: Thomas W.

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.

"Name was inspired by a family nickname for Russel's rambunctious daughter, Dolly." (Source: Rousmaniere, John. Sailing at Fishers. Mystic, CT, 2004, p. 81.)

"Though not indicated as such in the Construction Record, #1153s Savage, #1154s Qutee, #1155s Wild Goose, #1156s Surprise, and #1157s Kelpie were apparently build as one group of boats together, starting in September 1929 and thus making them the #1153 class. The contract dates of the latter three boats suggest that they were built on speculation and sold only after they had been built. Management at HMCo seems to have been sufficiently confident that even more buyers for FI31s could be found, because on May 20, 1930, at a time when the last boat of this #1153 class must still have been building, it issued an order to build two additonal boats forming the #1165 class (#1165s Skidoo and #1166s Last Straw)." (Source: van der Linde, Claas. January 15, 2015.)

"Date of delivery 'May 17, 1930' from original contract in collection of Herreshoff Marine Museum." (Source: van der Linde, Claas. January 15, 2015.)

"Built in 232 days (contract to delivered; equivalent to $69/day)." (Source: van der Linde, Claas. January 16, 2024.)

"Donated in 1984 by Ben & Toby Baker 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.