HMCo #757s [12 1/2 for W. C. Forbes]

Particulars

Construction_Record_Title.jpgName: [12 1/2 for W. C. Forbes]
Later Name(s): Midget
Type: Buzzards Bay 12 1/2 Footer
Designed by: NGH
Contract: 1914-11-14
Launch: 1915
Construction: Wood
LOA: 15' 6" (4.72m)
LWL: 12' 6" (3.81m)
Beam: 5' 10" (1.78m)
Draft: 2' 5" (0.74m)
Rig: Gaff Sloop
Sail Area: 140sq ft (13.0sq m)
Displ.: 1,574 lbs (714 kg)
Keel: yes
Ballast: Lead outside
Built for: Forbes, W. Cameron
Amount: $420.00
Note(s) in HMCo Construction Record: Buzzards Bay Class
Current owner: Private Owner, Naushon Island, MA (last reported 2015 at age 100)

Note: Particulars are primarily but not exclusively from the HMCo Construction Record. Supplementary information not from the Construction Record appears elsewhere in this record with a complete citation.


Model

Model #716Model number: 716
Model location: H.M.M. Model Room North Wall Right

Vessels from this model:
409 built, modeled by NGH

Original text on model:
"12 1/2' Buzzards Bay boy class 24 boats 1915 scale 1/10 size three [sic, i.e. four? #806, #813, #815, #817?] boats 1916
16' w.l. Oyster Bay "Fish Class" 23 boats 1916 scale 1/12 size sections 1/13 lengths 3 1/2 added at bow on deck" (Source: Original handwritten annotation on model. Undated.)

Model Description:
"12'-1/2' lwl Buzzards Bay 12 1/2-class of 1915, HMCo's most popular creation with some 360 boats produced. Also, with change in scale and proportionally longer bow, the Fish class sloops of 1916 and beyond." (Source: Bray, Maynard. 2004.)

Related model(s):
Model XA2-1_01 by NGH (1914?); sail
Buzzards Bay 12 1/2
Model XA2-1_02 by NGH (1914?); sail
Fish Class


Note: Vessels that appear in the records as not built, a cancelled contract, a study model, or as a model sailboat are listed but not counted in the list of vessels built from a model.


Offsets

Offset booklet number(s): HH.6.146-6

Offset booklet contents:
12 1/2-footer class, Fish class (Cape Cod Shipbuilding Embargoed)


Offset Booklet(s) in Haffenreffer-Herreshoff Collection. Francis Russell Hart Nautical Collections, MIT Museum, Cambridge, Mass. (Restricted access --- see curator.)

Drawings

Main drawing Dwg 076-118 (HH.5.05569) Explore all drawings relating to this boat.

List of drawings:
   Drawings believed to have been first drawn for, or being first referenced to
   HMCo #757s [12 1/2 for W. C. Forbes] are listed in bold.
   Click on Dwg number for preview, on HH number to see at M.I.T. Museum.
  1. Dwg 110-124 (HH.5.09089): Mast Head Details of Main Mast on # 698 (Vagrant) (1910-05-07)
  2. Dwg 130-124 (HH.5.10432); Sails > # 744 Design for Buzzard's Bay Boy's Boat (1914-10-11)
  3. Dwg 128-142 (HH.5.10269): Sails > Sails for No. 744 Class (1914-11-20)
  4. Dwg 081-111 (HH.5.06203): Spars for # 744 and Class (11 Boats), 12 1/2 Footer (1914-11-21)
  5. Dwg 081-111 (HH.5.06203.1): Spars for # 744 and Class (11 Boats), 12 1/2 Footer (1914-11-21)
  6. Dwg 065-064 (HH.5.04659); Rudder Hanging for # 743, Rudder and Hanging for # 744 Class (1915-02-15)
  7. Dwg 074-060 (HH.5.05348); Anchor for # 744 Class Made of Manganese Bronze (1915-03-30)
  8. Dwg 025-159 (HH.5.01916); List for # 744 Class, 12 1/2 Footers (1926-03-22)
  9. Dwg 148-000 (HH.5.12238); Construction Dwg > Herreshoff 12 1/2 Footer (ca. 1931)
  10. Dwg 076-118 (HH.5.05569); Construction Dwg > Herreshoff 12 1/2 Footer, 15'-8" O.A. x 12'-5" W.L. x 5'-10" Beam x 2'-5" Draft (1931-07-06)
  11. Dwg 076-118 (HH.5.05569.1); Construction Dwg > Herreshoff 12 1/2 Footer, 15'-8" O.A. x 12'-5" W.L. x 5'-10" Beam x 2'-5" Draft (1931-07-06)
  12. Dwg 128-142 [057-001] (HH.5.10270): Sails > Sails Plan 12 1/2 Footer Class (1934-06-04)
  13. Dwg 142-090 (HH.5.11837): Compartment Details for 12 1/2 Footers (1934-07-18)
  14. Dwg 130-124 (HH.5.10433); Sails > 12 1/2 Footer Class Gaff Rig Sail Plan (1938-02-19)
  15. Dwg 076-118 C (HH.5.06086): 12 1/2 Footer Class Gaff Rig Spar Details (1938-02-23)
  16. Dwg 076-118 C (HH.5.06086.1): 12 1/2 Footer Class Gaff Rig Spar Details (1938-02-23)
Source: Francis Russell Hart Nautical Collections, MIT Museum, Cambridge, Mass. Haffenreffer-Herreshoff Collection. Together with: Hasselbalch, Kurt with Frances Overcash and Angela Reddin. Guide to The Haffenreffer-Herreshoff Collection. Francis Russell Hart Nautical Collections, MIT Museum, Cambridge, Mass., 1997. Together with: Numerous additions and corrections by Claas van der Linde.
Note: The Haffenreffer-Herreshoff Collection is copyrighted by the Francis Russell Hart Nautical Collections of the MIT Museum in Cambridge, Mass. Permission to incorporate information from it in the Herreshoff Catalogue Raisonné is gratefully acknowledged. The use of this information is permitted solely for research purposes. No part of it is to be published in any form whatsoever.

Documents

Nathanael G. Herreshoff

"Oct[ober] 28 1914
No 744 & class [#744s, #745s, #746s, #747s, #748s, #749s, #750s, #751s, #752s, #753s, #754s, #755s, #756s, #757s, #758s, #759s, #760s, #761s, #762s, #765s].
Small keel sailing knockabout boats.
-> Scale of Model 1/10 size. Use 10" scale. <- (This applies to all following measurements of stem[?] & cross sections.)
Frame spaces 7 1/2" by common scale.
Timbers 13/16" sq[uare] by common scale.
Planking 7/16 cedar by common scale. (Deduct in making moulds 1 1/4".)
Deck 7/16 by common scale.
Sheer height given is top of deck.
Keel 1 1/8", 3/4" below rabbate.
Transom 5/8" by common scale.
Stem sided 1 5/8" by common scale.
Sheer strake (moulded) 7/8" by common scale.
[New page] #744 & Class. Bulls Eye [may be a later addition].
Top of lead to follow under side of main keel from 7 1/2 frame space (7 spaces + 3 3/4") to 2 1/4" aft of # 14 space. Then in straight line to a point 3/4" up from heel of sternpost.
Bottom of keel 3/4" below rabbate." (Source: Herreshoff, N.G. Penciled notes in Offset Booklet HH.6.146-6.] October 28, 1914. Haffenreffer-Herreshoff Collection, MIT Museum, Cambridge, MA.)

"[We built] also the first lot of about twenty-five [fall and winter of 1914-15] of the Buzzards Bay Twelve and One-Half Footers." (Source: Herreshoff, N. G. "Some of the Boats I Have Sailed In." Written 1934. In: Pinheiro, Carlton J. (ed.). Recollections and Other Writings by Nathanael G. Herreshoff. Bristol, 1998, p. 72-73.)

Other Contemporary Text Source(s)

"... The work at Herreshoff's of finishing the little craft of the two one-designed classes is rapidly being brought to a close. These boats of 12 and 22 feet waterline are to be delivered to their owners by May 15 [1915]. ... [The identity of the class of 22ft LWL boats is unclear.]" (Source: Anon. "Notes from the Week's Log." Boston Globe, April 11, 1915, p. 63.)

Other Modern Text Source(s)

"... The summer of 1915 saw the arrival of a new class of Herreshoff boat, one that would help to usher in true one-design racing. First serving several decades as a junior racer, the boat would eventually become a Quissett icon. Known variously as the Buzzards Bay Boy’s Boat, Buzzards Bay Knockabout, H-12, or at Quissett simply the Herreshoff or the 12 1/2, the boat was the result of a commission by Robert Emmons, a well-known yachtsman from Monument Beach. Emmons’ goal, also supported by other families, was to provide children with a safe, manageable, yet substantial boat, easier to sail than the Herreshoff 15 that Emmons and others had commissioned in 1898.
Twenty boats built in the winter of 1915 appeared that summer around the Bay. Four boats were purchased by the Forbes family of Naushon to sail out of Hadley Harbor; Clethra [#748s], Kinglet [#751s], Agouti [#756s], and Midget [#757s] are still sailing nearly one hundred years later. Two of the original boats came to Quissett. Philip Spalding purchased Shrimp [#749s] as a gift for his son Oakes’ twelfth birthday and Edwin Webster bought Rhodora [#753s]. That season Charlie Eldred, 14, would crew for Oakes in Shrimp, which is still sailing in Sippican (Marion) Harbor.
The first of a great many Falmouth Enterprise reports on 12 1/2 racing was printed on August 7, 1915: a race off Hadley Harbor that included the Naushon boats and the two 12 1/2s from Quissett. The Enterprise reported again on August 14 when twenty boats of all classes came out to race at Quissett in a 'steady whole sail breeze,' Bob Cat was the winner in the big catboats. Chiquita, sailed by Cornelia Carey, daughter of Stephen Carey Jr., won in the small cats. Breeze was first in the knockabouts, and in the 2nd class knockabouts, the 12 1/2s, the winner was Midget.
Summarizing the season The Enterprise commented, 'A large fleet of yachts made for a very interesting race. Many thanks are due the Forbes family of Naushon for their interest in the races both financially and by adding their fleet.' ..." (Source: Quissett Yacht Club (publ.). Glorious Good Times. The First Hundred Years of the Quissett Yacht Club. Quissett, 2012, p. 22-23.)

Maynard Bray

"There were twenty boats in the first batch of 12 1/2-footers; all were built the winter of 1914-1915, and they sold for $420 each. (These early 12 1/2s were fitted with rowing thwarts, metal tiller sockets, and stretched-out coaming ogees.) The full keels drawing only 2 1/2 feet made the boats suitable for reasonably shallow water, yet easier than centerboard boats to build. The jib-and-mainsail rig, as compared, say, to a single-sail cat rig, made the boats faster for their sail area and provided young sailors with an understanding of the sloop rig that they'd need later on for their adult sailing years.
The big, open cockpits gave the 12 1/2-footers a large-boat feel and enabled several persons besides the skipper to go sailing. With the narrow side decks, swamping under a press of sail was distinctly possible, and therefore a watertight buoyancy compartment was created underneath the forward deck by means of a bulkhead just forward of the mast. (A few 12 1/2-footers were built in 1939 with wider side decks and metal buoyancy tanks under the seats; these were known as Long Island Sound Bullseyes.) The sunken afterdeck served as a seat, perching the helmsman just enough higher than the passengers (who sat on the bench seats) so that he could see ovet their heads. A small storage locker was formed under the after-deck as well.
Before 1924, all 12 1/2-footers were gaff rigged; then a Marconi option became available, and in 1935 that rig could be purchased with the new and much-promoted 'wishboom rig and sail plan,' ...
..., notice the two vertical transom stiffeners and margin pieces, necessary in these early boats to reinforce their 5/8-inch-thick transoms (7/8-inch thickness, used subsequently, would make these pieces obsolete). ..." (Source: Bray, Maynard and Carlton Pinheiro. Herreshoff of Bristol. Brooklin, Maine, 1989, p. 79-80.)

Archival Documents

"N/A"

Note: This list of archival documents contains in an unedited form any and all which mention #757s [12 1/2 for W. C. Forbes] even if just in a cursory way. Permission to digitize, transcribe and display is gratefully acknowledged.

Further Reading
  • Bray, Maynard. "Restoration of 12 1/2 Footers. Part I." Wooden Boat #56, January/February 1984, p. 93-101. (1,293 kB)
    Document is copyrighted: Yes, used with permission. Copyright holder: Maynard Bray (text). Detailed Buzzards Bay 12 1/2 restoration step by step as performed by the Ballentine shop. Part I. Stem restoration, transom and frame replacement.
  • Bray, Maynard. "Restoration of 12 1/2 Footers. Part II." Wooden Boat #57, March/April 1984, p. 93-100. (1,036 kB)
    Document is copyrighted: Yes, used with permission. Copyright holder: Maynard Bray (text). Detailed Buzzards Bay 12 1/2 restoration step by step as performed by the Ballentine shop. Part II. Keel timber and coamings replacement.
  • Bray, Maynard (with photos by Benjamin Mendlowitz). "12 1/2 Footers." Nautical Quarterly, no. 37, Spring 1987, p. 47. (608 kB)
    Document is copyrighted: Yes, used with permission. Copyright holder: Maynard Bray (text), Benjamin Mendlowitz (photos). Short class portrait. Part of the larger article "Herreshoff Legacies."
  • Nagy, Steve. "The Herreshoff 12 1/2 Footer. Evolution Of The Class." In: Herreshoff Marine Museum (publ.). Proceedings. The 6th Classic Yacht Symposium. May 2-3, 2014. Bristol, RI, 2014, p. 1-23. (4,425 kB)
    Document is copyrighted: Yes. Copyright holder: Steve Nagy / Herreshoff Marine Museum. Short class history of the 12 1/2 as built by HMCo, Quincy Adams, Cape Cod Shipbuilding and others. Different models: Gaff, marconi, wishboom, Fishers Island. Detailed description of changes in configuration and equipment as boats were built over time. Identification guide for 12 1/2s missing their builder's plate. Photos. Original promotional material.

Supplement

From the 1920 and earlier HMCo Index Cards at the MIT Museum
  • Note: The vessel index cards comprise two sets of a total of some 3200 cards about vessels built by HMCo, with dimensions and information regarding drawings, later or former vessel names, and owners. They were compiled from HMCo's early days until 1920 and added to in later decades, apparently by Hart Nautical curator William A. Baker and his successors. While HMCo seems to have used only one set of index cards, all sorted by name and, where no name was available, by number, later users at MIT apparently divided them into two sets of cards, one sorted by vessel name, the other by vessel number and greatly expanded the number of cards. Original HMCo cards are usually lined and almost always punched with a hole at bottom center while later cards usually have no hole, are unlined, and often carry substantially less information. All cards are held by the Francis Russell Hart Nautical Collections of the MIT Museum in Cambridge, Mass.
From the 2000 (ca.) Transcription of the HMCo Construction Record by Vermilya/Bray

Month: Nov.
Day: 14
Year: 1914
E/P/S: S
No.: 0757
OA: 15' 6"
LW: 12' 6"
Rig: J & M
K: y
Ballast: Lead O.
Amount: $420.00
Notes Constr. Record: Buzards [sic] Bay Class
Notes Bray: on Naushon
Last Name: Forbes
First Name: W. C.

Source: Vermilya, Peter and Maynard Bray. "Transcription of the HMCo. Construction Record." Unpublished database, ca. 2000.

Note: The transcription of the HMCo Construction Record by Peter Vermilya and Maynard Bray was performed independently (and earlier) than that by Claas van der Linde. A comparison of the two transcriptions can be particularly useful in those many cases where the handwriting in the Construction Record is difficult to decipher.

From the 2007 12 1/2 Registry by Steve Nagy

Hull No.: 757
Contract Date: 1914-11-14
Org. Owner: W. Cameron Forbes
Org. Rig: J&M
Current Rig: Gaff
Mast Partner: Hinged
Home Port: Naushon Island
Current Name: Midget
Current Owner: Forbes Naushon Trust
Sheer-strake: Oak
Restored By: Harry Bryan
Note: One of 4 boats bought by W.C. Forbes from the first group of 20 in 1914. All four are on Naushon Island, still tied to the same dock where they were originally kept. They are cared for by Bobolink Boatyard.

Source: Nagy, Steve. "The Herreshoff 12 1/2 Footer Registry." Version 2.0. August 2007. (http://h12.orrsford.com/H12_Registry_Ver_2-0.pdf, last visit May 23, 2008.)

Research Note(s)

"Sail area approximately 140 square feet by rule." (Source: Herreshoff Manufacturing Company. Yachts by Herreshoff. The Herreshoff Manufacturing Company: Designers and Builders of Sailing and Power Craft since 1861. Bristol, Rhode Island, 1937.)

"Displacement to waterline 24.6 cuft. = 1575 lbs." (Source: Herreshoff, N. G. [Design notes.] October 27, 1914.)

"Displacement 24.6 cu.ft. [= 1575 lbs] from untitled two-page rating-rule-related table handwritten (in ink) by N. G. Herreshoff with multiple dimensions for the most important Herreshoff-designed yachts. Halsey C. Herreshoff Collection at the Herreshoff Marine Museum. MRDE15, Folder [no #]. Undated (the most recent boat dates 1914/1915 and the table was probably prepared in preparation for NGH's sail area rating rule of 1914/1915)." (Source: van der Linde, Claas. September 16, 2020.)

Note: Research notes contain information about a vessel that is often random and unedited but has been deemed useful for future research.

Note

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Citation: HMCo #757s [12 1/2 for W. C. Forbes]. Herreshoff Catalogue Raisonné. https://herreshoff.info/Docs/S00757_12_1_2_for_W_C_Forbes.htm.