THE (almost) LAST COPIES OF THE BOOK
"1870-1887 AMERICAN AND BRITISH YACHT DESIGNS"
Which is the better way to introduce our second book?
By publishing the long article published in WoodenBoat magazine January/February 1994...
To
the student of the evolution of American and British yacht design, there is
perhaps no period more extraordinary than the latter half of the 19th century.
To be sure, there have been many exciting designs produced in this century, but
their evolution has been much more subtle, as designers seemed to create within
fundamentally common themes. They were not, for the most part, inventing whole
new forms, although they were certainly refining basic forms in exquisitely
delicate ways. As a field of study, the history of the 20th century yacht
design deserves deep and focused research, but it cannot possibly be understood
without a complete comprehension of its foundations in the 19th century.
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| Thistle 1887 |
It
is the two most intense decades of experimentation and development in that
period—1870-1887—that the authors of 1870-1887
American and British Yacht Designs have
turned their attention, through research, writing, and the creation of measured
drawings. In fact, so focused is their attention that I wondered, as I examined
their work, whether we at WoodenBoat would have been as determined to produce
the book and magazine material we have on early yacht design if these books had
been in print in 1980 or '81. For these authors have provided readers with a
fairly broad look at some of the finest products of the period’s naval
architecture practices, primarily through the fine drawings (labeled in
English) of François Chevalier. But, of course, we would have published. After
all, our editorial mission has always been to provide a broader context for
appreciating the evolution of the yacht design during that and other periods.
We were not always successful in finding good—or any—plans drawings, however,
and it is here that these books surpass anything before them. For many yacht
designers, and for historians who understand the principles of naval
architecture clearly, 1870-1887
American and British Yacht Designs is
a complete study, especially with the narrative work (published in both French
and English) of Jacques Taglang which leads each chapter, and which accompanies
each yacht’s plans. Drawn from a variety of sources, the text is necessarily
brief and does not attempt to do more than place the type or design in the
context of the others in the collection. The deeper understanding of individual
yachts, or their place in time, would require more thorough scholarship, and
the reference notes and bibliography offer an abundance of accessible
resources. But this is not, I think, designed to be an intellectual experience.
Rather, it is an emotional and romantic one, a celebration of the art and
science of the yacht design at the very time when rule-of-thumb principles were
being displaced by more scientific ones. And many of the great examples are
here. There are yachts included whose hull lines I’ve never seen, including
most of the schooners, from the majestic Ambassadress to the lovely Gitana; a few sloops and
cutters, notably A. Cary Smith’s Priscilla and Cinderella,
and William Fife’s exquisite Ulidia.
There are also many more for which no sail plans have ever been published. In
these respects, there is much that is new here; some truly historic events, and
certainly some drafting “firsts.”
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| Montauk |
Among
the most engaging of these for me is the hull lines of Nathanael Herreshoff’s
steam yacht design Stiletto and Now
Then.
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| Stiletto |
As most enthusiasts know, Mr. Herreshoff did not draw hull lines, but
carved models of his designs, from which offsets were taken to scale and
entered in so-called Offset Books, which were then referred to by loft men who
laid down the lines full size on the floor prior to building the molds. Because
of his ingenious methods, it’s a virtual certainty that even Mr. Herreshoff
himself had never seen the lines of these yachts drawn out. But because most of
the original Offset Books and plans are available for research at the Hart
Nautical Collections of the MIT Museum, Mr. Chevalier was able to develop the
lines to scale with great fidelity, and the result is quite exciting. Other
yachts' lines were created by painstakingly measuring half models in the
extensive and impressive collections at the New York Yacht Club. (It’s fair to
say that, without these collections, we would have practically no idea of what
the shapes of certain historic yachts were like, and it is fortunate that the
Club has seen fit to preserve its heritage.) Additional research was conducted
in the extensive Ships Plans collections of Mystic Seaport Museum, and each
plan drawing is attributed to its source. The only mystery to me is the sail
plan drawing of the cutter Madge,
which is itself an exciting event. While the hull lines have been well
documented, preserved, and published, I have never seen more than a small
sketch of the original sail plan, and certainly never seen a complete drawing
as beautifully rendered as Mr. Chevalier’s. (The jib topsail looks a little
awkward in size and placement to my eye, but I’m no yacht designer.)
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| Em Ell Eye & Tartar |
The
authors were inspired in this endeavor by a rare and valuable book published in
1887 entitled American and
English Yachts, which featured fine yacht portraits by photographer
Nathaniel Stebbins, brief descriptions of the yachts—perhaps by Stebbins—and an
essay on yachts and yachting by Edward Burgess. There were no drawings. At the
time, Mr. Burgess had successfully designed three America’s Cup defenders,
and he was certainly one of the heroes of the yachting world. Because he had so
little time for writing during his bright but brief career (cut short by a
fatal illness in 1891), the essay affords a rare glimpse at his thinking. On
the subject of his winning designs Puritan and Mayflower in 1885/86, his comments are
particularly valuable. And, fortunately, the authors of 1870-1887 American and British
Yacht Designs have chosen to include
the Burgess essay, which helps to provide perspective on the book’s contents,
as the original had done. Interestingly enough, Burgess was resigned to the
fact that, in the future, all cruising boats would be powered by steam, and in
time by electricity. His hope remained that “we can at least continue the
interest in sailing matches, even if we cruise in the machine propelled craft.”
The whole idea of the auxiliary cruiser was yet to be developed. All of the
yachts originally featured in American
and English Yachts are
included in these two new volumes, with 20 more yachts added to provide a
broader view. Among the most significant, perhaps, is the ill-fated centerboard
schooner Mohawk, which
capsized in 1876 while preparing to get underway. Her anchor was hove short and
her sheets were fast when she was hit by two squalls and laid over on her side.
Her inside ballast shifted, as did some of the cabin furniture, and she sank,
with several people trapped below. Because the period covered saw the intense
pitting of shallow center boarders (“skimming dishes”) against deep cutters (“lead
mines”), resulting in the emergence in this country of the “compromise” type,
there are many examples of each type included. Mohawk was an extreme example in the large
center boarder category, and one look at her lines will show why she was so
vulnerable. But where Edward Burgess would never have included a failed yacht
among his selections, it is well for modern students to study such designs,
lest we forget. Neither would Burgess have included sandbaggers, of which there
are five splendid examples (including Annie,
still preserved at Mystic Seaport), but they also help us to understand the
extremes. There are several other yachts included that represent less extreme
thinking, and which should be included in any study of the period in question. Fanny, an 1874 sloop built by
D.O. Richmond of Mystic, is one, as is Schemer,
whose model, like that of Madge,
will be familiar to longtime readers of WoodenBoat.
The yawls Florinda and Jullanar are included, and provide a welcome
look at fine examples of a rig little used in yachts during this period.
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| Cythera |
As
the authors note, there are a few plans omissions, due simply to the fact that
no information could be found with which to draw them, but each of the examples
is illustrated by some means, with a photograph where possible. There are
several photographs I had never seen before, although I certainly should have.
Perhaps the most ironic for me was the portrait of the sloop Fanny. When we published in
1989 our Fiftieth Anniversary Edition of W.P. Stephens’s Traditions and Memories of American
Yachting (indisputably the
single most important study of the history of American yachting), we worked
hard to find original photographs, or improved versions of those initially used
in the book, and in large part we succeeded. Since Stephens himself had been
forced to use a poor photo of Fanny in attempting to illustrate her
original single-headsail rig, I searched widely but to no avail for a better one,
and had to settle eventually for another—taken after she had been fitted with
double headsails. In reading through Mr. Taglang’s text on Fanny, I turned the page to see
the very photo I had been hoping to find—showing her large single jib. Greatly
enlarged from a small, rare Stebbins photo, it was perfect. Mr. Stephens
and I had both completely missed it. (It will be found in our next edition, and
so, perhaps, might some of Mr. Chevalier’s drawings, if we can arrange it. They
are that important.)
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| Electra |
In
all, there are 71 yachts that make up the work, including 14 schooners, 6
catboats, 5 sandbaggers, 1 catamaran, 8 sloops, 17 cutters, 4 yawls, 9
compromise sloops, and 7 steam yachts. Apart from the drawings themselves,
which are beautiful, the authors have taken great pains to reproduce the
additional photos and illustrations as faithfully as possible to the originals,
utilizing a duotone process which adds richness and depth to each page. The production of the books is library quality, with the
same kind of fine paper and binding used in Taglang and Chevalier’s previous
book 1851-1986 America’s Cup Yacht Designs, published in 1987, and
reviewed in WB No. 82. Like the latter book, the trim size on these is 16½”
× 12” (horizontal), which obviously makes them unhandy for browsing in the lap.
But the format is dictated by the authors’ commitment to large-scale drawings,
which any serious student appreciates. Of course, such a commitment must come
at a price, and the price is no small matter. Yet for the serious, it may be an
irresistible opportunity. To the modeler of traditional yachts, it may be a
necessity, for many of these lines will be found nowhere else, and the story to
be told in half or full models is a powerful one. There is not, nor has there
ever been, anything quite like this book in the world. There have been
large-format collections of printed plans (Kunhardt’s Small Yachts) and books of
photographs (Nathaniel Stebbins and Henry Peabody) from the period, and there
is the above-mentioned Stephens, which provides much of the information and
more, but in smaller format. There has never been such a focused combination of
the two in such an elaborate and enduring form. It is unquestionably a labor of
love, and for any owner, it will doubtless be an object of love. Yet, though it
is prohibitively priced for most of us, it deserves our attention and
admiration, and surely belongs in any serious maritime library.
TO ORDER THE BOOK (two volumes), have a look in this blog:
http://chevaliertaglang.blogspot.fr/p/american-british-yacht-designs-1870-1887.html
TO ORDER THE BOOK (two volumes), have a look in this blog:
http://chevaliertaglang.blogspot.fr/p/american-british-yacht-designs-1870-1887.html
