HMCo #1379s [Fish Class for H. M. Lautmann]

"The first 16 footers were designed and built by N. G. Herreshoff in 1916 for the Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club of Oyster Bay, Long Island. ... The final two Herreshoff Fish boats [#1379s and #1380s] were built in June of 1936 and 1937. These boats were likely trimmed with mahogany." (Source: Meyer, R. "Herreshoff 16 Foot Class History." (Written on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the Fish Class.) Norwell, Massachusetts, January, 1991. In: http://www.herreshoffregistry.org/doc/Fish_History_Meyer.pdf, retrieved August 19, 2010.)

"Merry Hell
FISH-CLASS SLOOP BY HERRESHOFF HULL #1379 20' 9" x 7' 2" 1936
As with Blazing Star (1985.23), N. G. Herreshoff created the Fish Class from a half model he'd made earlier for another purpose --- in this case for the well-known 12 1/2-footers of which Nettle (1963.595) [#762s] is one. The Wizard of Bristol simply remeasured the model with a change in scale to produce this 5' longer and proportionally larger boat. The original Fish-Class fleet numbered 22 boats, all delivered to their owners in the spring of 1916. They were boats that attracted attention beyond the confines of Long Island's Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club, which sponsored the first fleet, and as the years passed more were built, later versions like Merry Hell carrying Marconi rigs rather than gaff. Some were fitted with the lovely molded sheerstrakes that became a kind of trademark of the Herreshoff yard. Ultimately the Herreshoff Mfg. Co. turned out more than 40 of these boats. At least half are still sailing --- and with justification, for they are truly a great design.
A Fish-Class derivative called the Marlin Class was developed for cruising, having a longer cabin, a pair of berths, and an inboard engine. Later, after the Herreshoff yard closed, Cape Cod Shipbuilding obtained the rights to the design and continued producing the Marlin in fiberglass, stretching the hull out with a counter stern and giving it a streamlined cabin trunk of molded fiberglass and a taller, masthead rig.
Merry Hell is one of the very last Fish-Class sloops built, and is about as pure an example as one is apt to find. She's had good care and very little use, and was for many years in covered storage in Charlevoix, Michigan, prior to her arrival at Mystic Seaport.
STATUS: Original, good condition.
DONOR: Pat Spitzmiller, in memory of Henry L. Stein
FURTHER READING:
Archives of Seawanhaka-Corinthian Yacht Club at Mystic Seaport.
Parkinson, John Jr. The Seawanhaka-Corinthian Yacht Club: The Early Twentieth Century. New York: 1965.
See also applicable portions of list for Nettle (1963.595).
ACCESSION NO. 1983.116." (Source: Bray, Maynard with Benjamin A. G. Fuller and Peter T. Vermilya. Mystic Seaport Watercraft. Mystic, Connecticut, 2001, p. 72-73.)

"[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 #1379s [Fish Class for H. M. Lautmann] even if just in a cursory way. Permission to digitize, transcribe and display is gratefully acknowledged.

• Merry Hell (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: Jun
Day: 10
Year: 1936
E/P/S: S
No.: 1379
OA: 21'
LW: 16'
B: 7'
D: 3' 3"
Amount: 1800.00
Last Name: Lautmann
First Name: H. M.

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.

"HMCo's 'Blue Print Record' (MIT Museum, Hart Nautical Collections, Haffenreffer-Herreshoff Collection Item HH.6.106. Box HAFH.6.3B, p. 21) suggests that this boat was built by Charlie Sylvester between June 1936 and August 1936 (when the last blueprint used to build it was returned to the office and destroyed)." (Source: van der Linde, Claas. October 3, 2018.)

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