Nathanael Greene Herreshoff (March 18, 1848 – June 2, 1938) was an American
naval architect This is the top category for all articles related to architecture and its practitioners.
{{Commons category, Architecture occupations
Design occupations
Occupations ...
,
mechanical engineer
Mechanical may refer to:
Machine
* Machine (mechanical), a system of mechanisms that shape the actuator input to achieve a specific application of output forces and movement
* Mechanical calculator, a device used to perform the basic operations of ...
, and
yacht
A yacht is a sailing or power vessel used for pleasure, cruising, or racing. There is no standard definition, though the term generally applies to vessels with a cabin intended for overnight use. To be termed a , as opposed to a , such a pleasu ...
design innovator.
He produced a succession of undefeated
America's Cup
The America's Cup, informally known as the Auld Mug, is a trophy awarded in the sport of sailing. It is the oldest international competition still operating in any sport. America's Cup match races are held between two sailing yachts: one ...
defenders between 1893 and 1920.
Biography
Herreshoff was born on March 18, 1848, in
Bristol, Rhode Island
Bristol is a town in Bristol County, Rhode Island, US as well as the historic county seat. The town is built on the traditional territories of the Pokanoket Wampanoag. It is a deep water seaport named after Bristol, England.
The population of B ...
and was named after General
Nathanael Greene
Nathanael Greene (June 19, 1786, sometimes misspelled Nathaniel) was a major general of the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War. He emerged from the war with a reputation as General George Washington's most talented and dependab ...
.
He was one of seven brothers.
He graduated from the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of th ...
in 1870 with a three-year degree in
mechanical engineering
Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and mathematics principles with materials science, to design, analyze, manufacture, ...
.
After graduation, he took a position with the
Corliss Steam Engine
A Corliss steam engine (or Corliss engine) is a steam engine, fitted with rotary valves and with variable valve timing patented in 1849, invented by and named after the American engineer George Henry Corliss of Providence, Rhode Island.
Engines ...
Company in
Providence, Rhode Island
Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts ...
. At the 1876
Centennial Exposition
The Centennial International Exhibition of 1876, the first official World's Fair to be held in the United States, was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from May 10 to November 10, 1876, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the signing of the ...
in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since ...
, he oversaw operation of the Corliss Stationary Engine, a ,
dynamo
"Dynamo Electric Machine" (end view, partly section, )
A dynamo is an electrical generator that creates direct current using a commutator. Dynamos were the first electrical generators capable of delivering power for industry, and the foundati ...
that powered the exhibition's machinery.
In 1878 Herreshoff returned to Bristol where he and one of his brothers, John Brown Herreshoff (1841–1915), who was blind, formed the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company. Nathanael provided the engineering expertise and John provided the business expertise, managing the firm's personnel and interacting with clients. Together, they grew the business from about 20 employees to over 400.
Herreshoff’s talent for innovation found expression in both design and light-construction techniques.
They built a variety of fast, steam-powered vessels and military craft.
Having started its design since 1876, The Herreshoffs built the first torpedo spar boat for the U.S. Navy. ''Lightning'', that was purchased for experimental evaluation in 1878.
In 1885, ''Stiletto'', a wooden torpedo boat with a length of 7.8 feets, 31 tons of displacement and a speed of 18.2 knots was launched at the Herreshoff Manufacturing Co. as a private speculation. It was purchased for the United States Navy under an Act of Congress dated 3 March 1887, and entered service in July 1887, attached to the Naval Torpedo Station in Newport Rhode Island. ''
USS Stiletto
A stiletto () is a knife or dagger with a long slender blade and needle-like point, primarily intended as a stabbing weapon.Limburg, Peter R., ''What's In The Names Of Antique Weapons'', Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, , (1973), pp. 77-78
The stil ...
'' was the Navy's first torpedo boat capable of launching self-propelled torpedoes.
In 1888, a serious accident occurred while Herreshoff was supervising speed trials of a ,
steamboat
A steamboat is a boat that is marine propulsion, propelled primarily by marine steam engine, steam power, typically driving propellers or Paddle steamer, paddlewheels. Steamboats sometimes use the ship prefix, prefix designation SS, S.S. or S/S ...
named ''Say When''. After a
safety valve
A safety valve is a valve that acts as a fail-safe. An example of safety valve is a pressure relief valve (PRV), which automatically releases a substance from a boiler, pressure vessel, or other system, when the pressure or temperature exceeds ...
opened to release over-pressure, Herreshoff closed it so the boat could achieve its anticipated maximum speed. But a boiler exploded, fatally injuring a member of the crew. Consequently, Herreshoff lost his steam engineer's license.
Herreshoff was an accomplished sailor, and was inducted into the
National Sailing Hall of Fame in 2011. Two of Herreshoff's sons, Sidney Dewolf Herreshoff and
Lewis Francis Herreshoff
L. (Lewis) Francis Herreshoff (November 11, 1890 – December 1972), was a boat designer, naval architect, editor, and author of books and magazine articles. Early in his career he worked for the Herreshoff Manufacturing and for naval archite ...
, also became yacht designers.
He died on June 2, 1938, in
Bristol, Rhode Island
Bristol is a town in Bristol County, Rhode Island, US as well as the historic county seat. The town is built on the traditional territories of the Pokanoket Wampanoag. It is a deep water seaport named after Bristol, England.
The population of B ...
.
Yacht building
![Reliance & Shamrock III](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/47/Reliance_%26_Shamrock_III.jpg)
While the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company's early work centered on steam-powered vessels, by the 1890s the Herreshoffs turned to the design and construction of yachts for wealthy American clients, including
Jay Gould
Jason Gould (; May 27, 1836 – December 2, 1892) was an American railroad magnate and financial speculator who is generally identified as one of the robber barons of the Gilded Age. His sharp and often unscrupulous business practices made him ...
,
William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst Sr. (; April 29, 1863 – August 14, 1951) was an American businessman, newspaper publisher, and politician known for developing the nation's largest newspaper chain and media company, Hearst Communications. His flamboya ...
,
John Pierpont Morgan
John Pierpont Morgan Sr. (April 17, 1837 – March 31, 1913) was an American financier and investment banker who dominated corporate finance on Wall Street throughout the Gilded Age. As the head of the banking firm that ultimately became kno ...
,
Cornelius Vanderbilt III
Brigadier General Cornelius "Neily" Vanderbilt III (September 5, 1873 – March 1, 1942) was an American military officer, inventor, engineer, and yachtsman. He was a member of the Vanderbilt family.
Early life
Born in New York City to Corneliu ...
,
Harold Stirling Vanderbilt,
William Kissam Vanderbilt II
William Kissam Vanderbilt II (October 26, 1878 – January 8, 1944) was an American motor racing enthusiast and yachtsman, and a member of the prominent Vanderbilt family.
Early life
He was born on October 26, 1878, in New York City, the seco ...
,
Harry Payne Whitney and
Alexander Smith Cochran. Herreshoff boat production incorporated power tools that increased productivity at a high level of quality, using craftsmen that received the highest boat-builder wages in the state of Rhode Island.
[
]
Herreshoff was noted as an innovative sailboat designer of his time. His designs ranged from the
12½, a 16-foot (12½ foot waterline) sailboat for training the children of yachtsmen,
to the 144-foot
America's Cup
The America's Cup, informally known as the Auld Mug, is a trophy awarded in the sport of sailing. It is the oldest international competition still operating in any sport. America's Cup match races are held between two sailing yachts: one ...
''Reliance'', with a sail area of 16,000 square feet. He received the first US patent for a sailing
catamaran. The firm built the America's Cup winning Cup yachts ''Enterprise'' (1930), and ''Rainbow'' (1934), designed by
Starling Burgess. Every winning America's Cup Yacht from 1893 to 1934 was built by the Herreshoff yard.
The 123-foot ''
Defender'' featured
steel-framing,
bronze plating up to the waterline and
aluminum
Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It ha ...
topsides to achieve a lighter and faster boat. This combination of materials had been pioneered in the French fresh-water racing yacht ''Vendenesse'', which had been described in a
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
article and caught the attention of the Vanderbilt Americacup syndicate. In salt water, ''Defender'' was subject to
galvanic corrosion, which limited its durability in water. ''Defender'' won the America's Cup in 1895 over Lord Dunraven's ''Valkyrie III'', and she was used as an effective trial-horse for Herreshoff's new Cup defender '' Columbia'' in 1899. She was broken up in 1901.
Those of the 2,000-plus designs by Herreshoff that survive are sought by connoisseurs of classic yachts. Herreshoff S-Class sailboats, designed in 1919 and built until 1941, are still actively raced in
Narragansett Bay
Narragansett Bay is a bay and estuary on the north side of Rhode Island Sound covering , of which is in Rhode Island. The bay forms New England's largest estuary, which functions as an expansive natural harbor and includes a small archipelago. Sm ...
, Buzzards Bay and Western Long Island Sound (
Larchmont, New York
Larchmont is a village located within the Town of Mamaroneck in Westchester County, New York, approximately northeast of Midtown Manhattan. The population of the village was 5,864 at the 2010 census. In February 2019, Bloomberg ranked Lar ...
). His 12½ design of 1914 is still being built and raced in New England as well. The New York 30 is well regarded as a one-design racer/cruiser.
In the 1942 the shipyard built wooden hull
APc-1-class small coastal transports
''APc-1''-class small coastal transports were a troopship design used during World War 2 for the United States Navy (USN). These ships were assigned to the Pacific War where they transported supplies, personnel and munitions around the Island ho ...
to support the
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
demand for ships.
The
Herreshoff Marine Museum
The Herreshoff Marine Museumis a maritime museum in Bristol, Rhode Island dedicated to the history of the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company, yachting, and America's Cup. The Herreshoff Manufacturing Company (1878–1945) was most notable for prod ...
preserves Herreshoff's legacy at the former site of the Herreshoff Manufacturing Co.
Notable vessels
Steam vessels
* ''Lightning''—the US Navy's first purpose-built torpedo boat—a speed record breaking steam launch with a
spar torpedo
A spar torpedo is a weapon consisting of a bomb placed at the end of a long pole, or spar, and attached to a boat. The weapon is used by running the end of the spar into the enemy ship. Spar torpedoes were often equipped with a barbed spear at ...
, 1876.
* Peruvian
Torpedo boats in the War of the Pacific, (1879-1883).
Sailing vessels
In the last quarter of the 19th century, Herreshoff constructed a double-hulled sailing boat of his own design (US Pat. No. 189,459). The craft, ''Amaryllis'', raced at her maiden regatta on June 22, 1876, and performed exceedingly well. Her debut demonstrated the distinct performance advantages afforded by
catamarans over the standard monohulls. It was as a result of this event, the Centennial Regatta of the New York Yacht Club, that catamarans were barred from regular sailing classes, and this remained the case until the 1970s.
In 1892 he build ''Wee Win'' a ½ rater for Winifred Sutton, daughter of Sir Richard Sutton, 5th
Baronet
A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14t ...
, whose yacht
Genesta had been beaten in the 1885 America's cup by Puritan. ''Wee Win'' was very successful racing on the Solent, leading to several follow-up orders from British Yachtswomen and Yachtsmen.
*''
Amaryllis
''Amaryllis'' () is the only genus in the subtribe Amaryllidinae (tribe Amaryllideae). It is a small genus of flowering bulbs, with two species. The better known of the two, ''Amaryllis belladonna'', is a native of the Western Cape region of ...
'' – sailing catamaran, 1876
*''
Tarantella
() is a group of various southern Italian folk dances originating in the regions of Calabria, Campania and Puglia. It is characterized by a fast upbeat tempo, usually in time (sometimes or ), accompanied by tambourines. It is among the mo ...
'' – catamaran, 1877
*''
Westward'' – racing yacht, 1910
* ''
Helianthus III'', 1924
* ''
Herreshoff Bull's Eye
The Herreshoff Bull's Eye or Bullseye, is an American trailerable sailboat that was designed by Nathanael Greene Herreshoff and first built in 1914.Sherwood, Richard M.: ''A Field Guide to Sailboats of North America, Second Edition'', pages ...
''
*
Herreshoff 12½
America's Cup yachts
Herreshoff designed and built the following America's Cup contenders. All won the series against their challengers. Herreshoff was the helmsman of ''Vigilant''.
* ''
Vigilant'', 1893
* ''
Defender'', 1895
* ''
Columbia'', 1899 & 1901
* ''
Reliance'', 1903
* ''
Resolute'', 1920
Technical achievements
![Herreshoff Torpedo Boat](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b7/Herreshoff_Torpedo_Boat.jpg)
According to his son's biography, Herreshoff's achievements include:
#Built the first torpedo boat for the U.S. Navy.
#Developed bulb and fin keels for large boats.
#Updated the sail track and slide.
#Invented the crosscut sail, with panels running at right angles to the leech, in order to combat cotton canvas' tendency to distort under load.
See also
*
Herreshoff Marine Museum
The Herreshoff Marine Museumis a maritime museum in Bristol, Rhode Island dedicated to the history of the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company, yachting, and America's Cup. The Herreshoff Manufacturing Company (1878–1945) was most notable for prod ...
References
Bibliography
*
*
*
*Herreshoff, Nathanael G. ''Recollections and Other Writings'' (Bristol, RI: Herreshoff Marine Museum)
*Herreshoff, Nathanael G. and William Picard Stephens, annotated by John W. Streeter, ''Nathanael Greene Herreshoff, William Picard Stephens: Their Last Letters 1930-1938'' (Bristol, RI: Herreshoff Marine Museum) 1998.
*
*
External links
Herreshoff Marine Museum / America's Cup Hall of Fame
{{DEFAULTSORT:Herreshoff, Nathanael
1848 births
1938 deaths
American yacht designers
Multihull designers
America's Cup yacht designers
American naval architects
MIT School of Engineering alumni
People from Bristol, Rhode Island
Herreshoff family
Engineers from Rhode Island