HMCo #1179s Osprey

"... in some ways the most interesting product of 1919 was the one-design class of 'S' boats, which came out early that spring.
While there were few of them built the first year, perhaps twenty, the company continued building them off and on for the next eight or nine years so that eventually there were perhaps a hundred and fifty or more of them, and besides being good little cruisers they have furnished active racing up to the present time in widely separated districts. If I remember right these little yachts cost less than two thousand dollars the first few years, so they have been a good investment for some owners for they were built well enough to last for years if handled carefully. Perhaps the 'S' boats would even have been more popular if they had been a little better looking but that defect should not be wholly blamed on Captain Nat for it was the request of the original sponsors of the class that they have short overhangs and full bows and sterns. This feature has made them rather queer-looking Universal Rule boats, and consequently they are not particularly fast for their rating. But there have been few all-around better boats for afternoon sailing, cruising, and racing, and perhaps also the last one-design class that was somewhat comfortable." (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.)

"Owner; Years; Location; Boat Name; Sail No.
Sheldon Whitehouse; 1935 - 1940; Newport, RI; Osprey; 8
John Nicholas Brown; 1944; Newport, RI; Tarrantella;
Edward B. Tiffany; 1945 - 1946; Narragansett Bay; Olita; 18
Henry Walsh; 1947 - 1949; Narragansett Bay; Jocelyn; 18
Green; 1956 - 1957; Long Island, NY; Tonic; 18
Herbert L. Jamison; 1957 - 1966; Long Island, NY; Nereid; 28
Bradford Smith; 1966 - ; Rye, NY; Nereid; 28
Richard L. Seamans; ; Narragansett Bay; ; 38
Frank McGonagle; 1973 - 1978; Coles River, RI; Nereid; 38
Malcolm Davidson; 1979 - 1963; Narragansett Bay; Nereid; 38
Ramsley; 1965 - 1989; Taunton River, MA
Mike McCaffrey; 1989 - 2008; Newport, RI; Osprey; 8. [Note: The Herreshoff Registry treats Osprey as (ubknown) Hull 9016, whereas the HCR treats her as #1179s. See Research Note for further information.)" (Source: The Herreshoff Registry (with much info apparently from Upham, Kenneth B. History and Register of the S-Boat, 1994, p. 111). https://www.herreshoffregistry.org/detail.php?hull=9016, retrieved May 9, 2017.)

"[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 #1179s Osprey even if just in a cursory way. Permission to digitize, transcribe and display is gratefully acknowledged.

• Benfield, James W. "Reviving the 'S' Class." Yachting, May 1945, p. 56-57, 104. (3,516 kB)
  Document is copyrighted: Yes. How the Western Long Island Sound S-class fleet was built with a deliberate strategy.
• Upham, Kenneth B. History and Register of the S-Boat. Privately printed, no place, 1994. (13,553 kB)
  Document is copyrighted: Yes, used with permission. The definitive source of info on the S-class, but unfortunately current only up to its date of publication in 1994. History of the class and its various fleets, technical comments, detailed vessel-by-vessel provenance, owner and name indices.
• Bray, Maynard and Claas van der Linde. "The Origins of the S-Boat. A Remarkable Herreshoff One-Design." Wooden Boat #267, March/April 2019, p. 74-79. (1,201 kB)
  Document is copyrighted: Yes. A short history of how the S-Class came about, including new insights from recent research of original Herreshoff documents. With photos and reproductions of the original construction and sail plans.
• Silken, Alan (text). Silken, Cory (photos). "Setting Sail in America. The Remarkable Story of Herreshoff S Class Sailboats." Seapoint Books, Brooklin, ME.
  Appreciation of the S-Class, history of the design and local fleets, portraits of surviving S-boats and a catalogue of all S-boats
• Silken, Alan (text). Silken, Cory (photos). "A Century of S-Boats. The Enduring Appeal of a Classic Herreshoff One-Design." Wooden Boat #267, March/April 2019, p. 80-85. (1,510 kB)
  Document is copyrighted: Yes. Appreciation of the S-Class and a history of the fleets in Narragansett Bay, Quisset and Long Island and a summary of the leading S-boat restorers.
• van der Linde, Claas. [No title. Note about S-Class Weight Discrepancies.] March 11, 2022. (11 kB)
  Document is copyrighted: Yes, used with permission. Copyright holder: Claas van der Linde. Note about discrepancies in published and unpublished sources of displacement of S-class boats and why 6030lbs is currently assumed to be the correct weight.
• Herreshoff Manufacturing Company. [Contract for #1179s believed to be Osprey, S-Class.] Herreshoff Marine Museum Collection. Bristol, RI, October, 1935. (936 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.

• #1179s and other S 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.

Month: Aug
Day: 20
Year: 1930
E/P/S: S
No.: 1179
OA: 27 1/2'
LW: 20 1/2'
B: 7' 2"
D: 4' 9"
Rig: J & W
K: y
Ballast: Lead
Notes Constr. Record: S-Mah
Notes Bray: #83 in Name column

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.

"Nothing about the boat recorded as #1179s in the Herreshoff Construction Record is known --- unless we assume her to be the un-numbered S-boat Osprey for which in October 1935 a contract was made between HMCo and Sheldon Whitehouse whose history is known from 1935 until today. This is not to say that the S-boat numbered #1179s is absolutely certainly Osprey. However, there are several reasons which suggest it.
a) The contract for Whitehouse, which does not specify a builder's number and is dated October 1935 and for delivery "on or about June 1st, 1936", appears only on first sight to be for an unbuilt boat that was to be constructed by HMCo after its signing. But closer inspection shows that payment was due in full shortly after the signing and that the boat was to be stored by HMCo until 1936. Both facts strongly suggest that this boat had already been completed in October 1935 and thus had been built on speculation and was just sitting at HMCo, waiting for a buyer. Which was not unusual for HMCo during the Haffenreffer years and which is also suggested by the Construction Record which does not show an S-boat to have been built in the winter of 1935/36.
b) This poses the question which of the already built boats might be a fit for Osprey. Previously owned boats will be ruled out because a used boat is something the contract should have mentioned. Which leaves #1179s, #1181s, #1182s, #1183s, and #1184s. These were boats that are believed to have been planned to form a building class, the work order to build having been given on August 20, 1930 as per a pencilled note all the way to the left of the entry for #1179s in the Construction Record. The boat would thus have been sitting for some five years at HMCo, waiting for a buyer.
c) The contract shows Osprey to have been delivered with mahogany (rather than teak) finish. Which means we can rule out #1183s and #1184s which were teak finished. This leaves as possible choices only the mahogany-finished boats #1179s, #1181s, and #1182s.
d) Mahogany-finished boats generally sold for $4100 during those years, teak-finished boats for $4200. The contract shows that Osprey was sold for the very low price of only $2850, suggesting once again that she was not a new boat and had been sitting for quite some time. (Three years before, the teak-finished S- boat #1180s had been sold for the 'special low price' of $3925.)
e) #1181s, #1182s, #1183s, and #1184s are very strange boats. There is no indication in the Construction Record as to what kind of boats they were, no dimensions, no dates, no ownership information, no remarks other than 'mah. finish' or 'teak finish' which points to their being S-boats where these distinctions were also made. Plus, they carry pencilled-in running numbers from 85 to 88 which someone put in to count S-boats. But we don't know who put in these numbers. It might have been someone from HMCo (R. F. Haffenreffer?), it might have been Bill Baker during his times as Hart Nautical Collections curator. No one seems to have ever seen any of these boats. Ken Upham's S-class book from 1993, the definitive source on S-boats, has no information about them. For all we know, they may not have been built (and as such they are now treated in the Herreshoff Catalogue Raisonné). They would not be the only boats listed in the Construction Record which were not built. HMCo, during the Haffenreffer years, routinely assigned hull numbers to classes of boats before they had been ordered and this group of boats may be a case where hull numbers were assigned but the actual boats were never built.
Which leaves #1179s being Osprey --- unless she was a used boat which is unlikely. For the time being, the Herreshoff Catalogue Raisonné will treat #1179s as Osprey." (Source: van der Linde, Claas. May 9, 2017.)

"History of previous names for Osprey from Upham, Kenneth B. History and Register of the S-Boat. Privately printed, no place, 1994, p. 111." (Source: van der Linde, Claas. May 9, 2017.)

"[Note that this boat is listed as hull #1181s by the Herreshoff Registry." (Source: http://www.herreshoffregistry.org/detail.php?hull=1181, retrieved January 10, 2021.)

"Sail area approximately 425 square feet, measured." (Source: Herreshoff Manufacturing Company. Yachts by Herreshoff. The Herreshoff Manufacturing Company: Designers and Builders of Sailing and Power Craft since 1861. Bristol, Rhode Island, 1937.)

"See note about about weight discrepancies in published and unpublished sources under 'Further Reading' heading." (Source: van der Linde, Claas. March 11, 2022.)

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