Preview: Herreshoff Marine Museum, Part 1 – The Model Room with Halsey Herreshoff

24 Responses So Far to “Herreshoff Marine Museum, Part 1 – The Model Room with Halsey Herreshoff”

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  Scott Caple says:

  May have been noted already, but the Museum has one of the best virtual tours ever.

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  Kent and Skipper says:

  How is it that when Halsey speaks, it all makes sense? A few years back he took time to chat with me about NC-4, the flying boat seen early in the video for which HMCo built the hull. And also about some of the smallest models in the collection including the early catamarans, and one of my favorites, Amaryllis. I’ll always treasure that conversation and the fine man who patiently explained the art and the craft in even ways that I could understand.

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  Richard E. Duggan says:

  When opportunity knocks, follow your brain and heart; you never know where it may take you.
  Wonderful story, thank you for sharing it!

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  Edward Bardoe says:

  Wonderful!

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  Peter North says:

  Thank you to Halsey for passing along his thoughts on his grandfather’s designs. What a pleasure. And, Dave Tew I’ll always pause remembering that story when I see you post on a wooden boat forum…a great small world.

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    David Tew says:

    For what it’s worth I submitted that story (with corrections by my wife) for this (next) month’s POINTS EAST magazine.

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  Wes Faulkenberry Jr. says:

  David, you probably know this one: Halsey refers to L. Francis as his uncle. Who, then, was Halsey’s father? Or, come to think of it, was it his mother who was in the Herreshoff family line? Best regards, Wes

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    john snee says:

    Halsey’s father was A. Sidney DeWolfe Herreshoff.

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  Mark Ritter says:

  Great video. I was given a tour of the model room several years ago while visiting the museum to research my Coquina build. It’s an amazing collection of 1/2 hulls and the tools used to create them.

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  Jack Camillo says:

  Excellent video and timely for my wife and I. We just visited the museum a couple of weeks ago and had an outstanding tour of it by a gentleman named Dan (forgot his last name). The Herreshoffs were such a large part of the history of this country that so many people don’t know about.

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  David Hubbard says:

  Not only a great video, but it is so important to capture this history.
  Thanks guys for doing so here for future generations.

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  william hunt says:

  What a skillful portrait of the two men ! This form of documentation I consider
  hugely valuable, and thanks for doing it so well. I admit to deep devotion to my
  Rozinante “Alfalfa” for 37 yrs and hope to see the museum someday…this is a great supcon.

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  David Corey says:

  Dyer Jones, the current CEO of the Herreshoff Marine Museum, took me and my niece through the model room earlier this year. In addition to the models, there are many of the original drafting and carving tools that Capt. Nat used. It was a treat neither of us will forget.

  For further exploration, there’s a wonderful short video of Halsey taking the lines off the S-Boat half model with the instrument his grandfather designed (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5kL2qSqQyM).

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  Fred Hard says:

  Avalon, a 12 1/2 built for my great grandfather, Commodore Bourne as “Kiddie” (hull number 768), is currently in the small boat shed at the Long Island Maritime Museum, right on the “crick” where she was first sailed by my father, Frederick B. Hard, and is brother George W. Hard. She will be 100 years old next year (2015) and, if launched and allowed to swell tight, would sail every bit as well as she did when built.

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  chip puhl says:

  Fantastic, What a treasure,

  Set my trip to the office back an hour and ten minutes today. I had to watch the video three times and will certainly replay it at least that many times this week-end.
  Thanks Crew, Very well done. Part 2- Please Hurry!

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  Walter Allan says:

  What a great story by David Tew. And what a great video by Steve and Maynard.

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  Peter Gossell says:

  Truly inspirational!
  I am sure I could spend an hour admiring every single model. Halsey is right, his grandfather was an artist, he was a sculptor.
  Thanks for another great video.

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  Doug Wood says:

  That video was pure joy. What a treat!

  And followed up by a great story by Mr. Tew.

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  Livio Muench says:

  Beautiful story David. It shows the benefits of following curiosity and passion.

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  Charles Barclay says:

  After 190 videos, the content is still fresh. Bravo gentlemen, this is my new favorite and I eagerly await Part 2.

  Thank you OffCenterHarbor.com for bringing two living luminaries together to discuss the genius of N.G.H. with a bit on L.F.H. and A.S.Dw.H. as bonus.

  Echoing Maynard’s early comment, the model room is a treasured hall.

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  David Tew says:

  In 1973 I brashly, but with some trepidation, knocked on Halsey Herreshoff’s apartment door overlooking the Charles River in Boston. When he opened the door I introduced myself and with the same courtly and well-spoken manner he exhibits in this video, he welcomed me inside. I’d made a half model of his grandfather’s sloop SHADOW during my spare time at college. I wanted to both show it to him (to see if he thought I ‘got it right’) and ask him questions about yacht designing, a field I was interested in. At the time he was lecturing and doing research at MIT and designing the first of Garry Hoyt’s Freedom series of fg yachts, the Freedom 40. He showed me the lines he’d drawn based in part on one of his grandfather’s designs, and we discussed it for longer and in more depth than I thought he would have time for. By the end of our conversation he suggested that I ‘intern’ with him to learn about yacht design since an afternoon’s discussion would only offer a minimal understanding. I, of course, was thrilled and we set a weekly schedule of meetings. In subsequent months he would give me weekly assignments to research or complete. One time he was a bit rushed as our discussion drew to an close and throwing on his coat gave me a computer printout and the task to ‘draw that for next time’. I looked at the sheet of paper as the door closed behind him and was mystified. It was a series of numbers in a table about twelve wide by eight deep. No other identifying marks. It was a puzzle but I felt the challenge to figure it out. A day or so later a childhood friend of one of my college roommates stopped by to see him and do some typing for him. She was on break from her college and was eager to help out. He introduced me to her and they went off to work on his paper. Later in the day she stopped by my room to see what I was up to. I was struggling with the table Halsey had given me. She looked at it and said “Could it be a table of offsets?” I was dumbstruck. Of course. How obvious. There was no indication about buttock lines or waterlines, etc., and that’s what was stumping me. Some experimentation with different scales solved the riddle and I was able to suss out the lovely, sleek, hull shape that Halsey later showed me the model for in Bristol. It too was based in one of his grandfather’s designs and became his own personal sailboat, one of the first built by Eric Goetz. It’s a boat he still has and races in Bristol. I also got something out of that project: my wife. The girl who guessed about the table of offsets has been wife, companion and best boat-critic for forty years.

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    Steve Stone says:

    Wow. Had no idea of that connection Dave. What a great story.

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      Jack Camillo says:

      Indeed a great story!

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    Kevin Brennan says:

    what a great story and lesson, sometimes it pays to be brash.