Recollections and Other Writings by Nathanael G. Herreshoff
(pp.126. Illustrated with photographs. Light shelf to book...)
pp.126. Illustrated with photographs. Light shelf to book and slipcase. Overall very good to fine. Introduction by Halsey C. Herreshoff. Signed on the title page by Nathanael G. Herreshoff, III, Natalie W. Herreshoff and Halsey C. Herreshoff. Limited Edition, Number 16 of 250 copies.
Nathanael Greene Herreshoff was an American naval architect, mechanical engineer, and yacht design innovator. He is best known for designing motor and sailing yachts, especially America's Cup defenders between 1893-1920.
Background
Nathanael Greene Herreshoff was born on March 18, 1848 in Bristol, Rhode Island, United States. He was a son of Charles Frederick Herreshoff, farmer and shipbuilder, and Julia Ann (Lewis) Herreshoff.
His grandfather, Charles Frederick Herreshoff (originally Karl Friedrich Herrschoff), the son of a guardsman of Frederick the Great of Prussia, had come to the United States in 1787 and entered the importing business at New York; in 1801 he married Sarah Brown, a daughter of the Rhode Island merchant John Brown, 1736-1803, settling soon afterward in Bristol.
Nathanael's grandfather on his mother's side, Joseph Warren Lewis, a descendant of the Massachusetts Winslows and Lewises, was a sea-captain. Nathanael was the fifth son and seventh child in a family of nine, a younger brother of James Brown Herreshoff, inventor, and of John Brown Herreshoff, shipbuilder and engineer.
Another brother, John Brown Francis Herreshoff (1850-1932), became a noted chemist.
As a child Nathanael had been dominated by his brother and made to perform work far beyond the normal capacity of a small boy. Acting as his older brother's eyes after the latter became blind, he soon became adept at boat design, making his first attempts at the age of sixteen. Before he was twenty he had designed numerous boats, showing great originality of thought.
Education
Herreshoff was educated in the local public school and in 1866 entered the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, taking a course in mechanical engineering. He left after three years to join the Corliss Steam Engine Company, Providence, Rhode Island, as draftsman and engineer.
Career
In 1878 Herreshoff entered into partnership with his brother John Brown ("J. B. ") to form the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company at Bristol, his brother handling business matters while Nathanael acted as superintendent and naval architect-engineer. With his brother's death in 1915 he became president of the firm.
In 1877 he designed and built four sailing catamarans and in 1879 two more; he held patents on his catamaran design. During the 1880s, when the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company confined its building to steamers, particularly fast steam yachts and torpedo craft, he produced a large number of early spart-orpedo launches for foreign governments, as well as the first launch built for this service for the United States Navy. He also designed the navy's first seagoing torpedo-boat, the Cushing, as well as the later torpedo-boats Morris, Gwin, Talbot, Porter, and Dupont, all built before 1898.
The noted steam yacht Stiletto, built in 1885, was of his design; in 1887 she was purchased by the navy as a torpedo-boat. Herreshoff's earlier experience in designing sailing craft, however, soon led him to reenter this field, and in the early 1890s he produced three outstanding yachts: Dilemma (1891), Gloriana (1891), and Wasp (1892). In 1893 he designed the America's Cup defender Vigilant, and in each of the six races held from then to 1920 his designs were successful defenders.
By 1895 he was recognized as the leading yacht designer in the United States and had an international reputation; in succeeding years his yachts rolled up a formidable list of victories in racing competitions. Among his accomplishments were the introduction of cross-cut sails, very light hull construction, web frames and longitudinal system of framing as employed in yachts, development of light, hollow spars, and light steam engines of great power; he also had a lasting influence on the form and rig of American sailing yachts. He was remarkable, too, for the volume of his work.
His retirement in 1924 brought an end to the Herreshoff firm, although he retained a financial interest in the shipyards after their sale to a new company. He died at the age of ninety at his Bristol home and was buried in the family plot at Bristol.
(pp.126. Illustrated with photographs. Light shelf to book...)
Personality
Extremely industrious, for sixty years Herreshoff followed a regular schedule in which he spent nearly thirteen hours a day in his designing room or at his shipyard, beginning at 6 a. m. and ending at 10 p. m.
In character "Captain Nat, " as he was usually called, was modest, silent, and observant, possessing great common sense and intelligence. He was somewhat lacking in tact and had no social interests. He was curt in conversation but expressed himself clearly about any opinion he wished to make known.
Connections
On December 26, 1883, Herreshoff married Clara Anna DeWolf, a member of the prominent DeWolf family of Bristol. They had six children: Agnes, Algernon Sidney DeWolf, Nathanael Greene, Alexander Griswold, Lewis Francis, and Clarence DeWolf.
His first wife died in the fall of 1905, and in 1915 he married Ann Roebuck, who survived him.