A Bristol Afternoon with Halsey Herreshoff
By: Katheryn Burchett
While driving along the quiet, two-lane road into Bristol, Rhode Island, for a meeting with Halsey Herreshoff, I was having trouble comprehending how the little town was, for 65 years arguably the epicenter of boatbuilding in the nation.
Once I laid eyes on the sweeping lines of America3—the boat Bill Koch skippered valiantly to victory in the 1992 America’s Cup—casting its splendorous shadow over the corner of Hope and Burnside Streets, I realized I was standing on hallowed ground. Boat-building outfits are a stone’s throw. The crown jewel, the Herreshoff Marine Museum and America’s Cup Hall of Fame, is directly across the street.
Beyond the nautically reminiscent views and the well-protected, deep-water harbor surrounding them, what really put Bristol on the map around the turn of the century was the passion and innovation of two brothers, John Brown Herreshoff and Captain Nathanael G. Herreshoff—known as Captain Nat—who founded the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company in 1863. For decades, the name Herreshoff was to yachts what Ford was to automobiles, and its highly sought-after yachts were devoured by a well-heeled clientele including names like J.P. Morgan, Harold Vanderbilt, and J.J. Astor.
A park across from the museum commemorates a few of the family’s builds and designs, including America’s Cup defenders Vigilant (1893), Defender (1895), Columbia (1899), Reliance (1903), Resolute (1914), Enterprise (1930) and Rainbow (1934)—notwithstanding, the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company also built the first seagoing torpedo boat for the U.S. Navy in 1890. A monument reads: “Herreshoff inventive design of hulls, sails, engines and devices was an enduring contribution to yachting.”
As the third-generation torchbearer of his family’s legacy, Halsey Chase Herreshoff can’t out-navigate his genes. The grandson of the famous Captain Nat is a living legend here, following in his father’s and grandfather’s footsteps, adding to the family’s legacy of contributions to the yachting world in the fields of boat design, sailing, engineering, and construction.
My walk up the three flights of stairs to Halsey’s office, nestled in one of the original Herreshoff Marine shop buildings, was somewhat daunting, with memento-strewn walls holding photos of iconic family, friends, and legendary boats dating back more than a century.
