Background
Edward Burgess was born on June 30, 1848 in West Sandwich, Massachussets, the son of Benjamin F. and Cordelia (Ellis) Burgess. His father was a wealthy Boston merchant in the West Indian trade.
Edward Burgess was born on June 30, 1848 in West Sandwich, Massachussets, the son of Benjamin F. and Cordelia (Ellis) Burgess. His father was a wealthy Boston merchant in the West Indian trade.
After a preparatory course in a private Latin school the son in 1866 entered Harvard, from which he graduated in 1871, with the degree of A. B. Edward Burgess left college with two well-developed hobbies, entomology and boating. His attachment to the former prompted him to accept the secretaryship of the Natural History Society of Boston in 1872, and his attachment to the latter led him, during his travels in Europe, to make some study of yacht building.
Through his father's failure in business in 1879 he was left without means. He returned to Harvard as an instructor of entomology in the Bussey Institution and remained there four years.
At the request of the United States Entomological Commission, he and Charles S. Minot contributed a paper "On the Anatomy of Aletio". Other scientific papers were published by him in Science and in the Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History.
In the fall of 1883 he and his younger brother Sidney started in business as yacht designers under the firm name of Burgess Brothers. There were few orders, and Sidney, discouraged, left the firm and went abroad. A revival of English interest in the contest for the America's Cup brought about a challenge for another race, which was accepted by a syndicate of Boston yachtsmen headed by J. Malcolm Forbes, and Burgess was chosen to design the American contender.
The undertaking was one before which he might well have faltered, for his previous experiments in designing could help him little in the planning of a vessel such as the one now demanded. Nevertheless he resolutely set to work and in the end produced the Puritan, which in the race of 1885 defeated the English cutter, the Genesta.
The victory brought him instant fame and a favorable turn in fortune. In the next year he designed the Mayflower, which outsailed the English Galatea, and in 1887 the Volunteer which defeated the English Thistle. His services were now in great demand among wealthy yachtsmen. In the short period of his professional career he designed over two hundred vessels.
In 1887 he was appointed a member of the United States Naval Board to award prizes for the designs of cruisers and battle-ships, and in 1888 permanent chairman of the board of life-saving appliances of the United States Life-Saving Service. He died of typhoid fever in his home in Boston.
Several of Burgess' boats won fame in the waters of the eastern United States. His professional achievements were so greatly recognized that a committee of Bostonians selected him to design a large sloop yacht to represent the United States in a series of international races in 1884. From his designs, "Puritan" was built; she easily defeated "Genesta" (English) for the America's Cup in 1885. This was a remarkable triumph in view of the fact that it was the first attempt of an American designer to solve certain shipbuilding problems to which Englishmen had given their attention for a score of years. As a naval architect he is celebrated less for being an originator than for being an effective combiner. His genius, writes one of his eulogists, lay in his remarkable powers of observation and selection; though he did not discover any new element of speed, as did some of the others of his time, he still excelled his rivals in uniting known elements of speed as they had never before been combined. Burgess was inducted into the America's Cup Hall of Fame in 1994.
He was a member of the Boston Society of Natural History.
He was a man of cultivation and refinement, in manner quiet and reserved and in speech reticent. His tastes were intellectual and artistic, and his home, largely designed by himself, is said to have been a characteristic expression of his personality. Among his intimate friends his studied reserve was doffed; he was capable of jesting and could play the boy; and it is recorded of him that he signalized every victory by turning a double somersault on the deck of his vessel.
Quotes from others about the person
"He had nothing to guide him--no yacht from which to obtain any data, " writes McVey.
Burgess was married to Caroline L. Sullivant, of Columbus, Ohio, who with two sons survived him. They had two sons William Starling and Charles Paine.
