Beowulf in Gloucester, Massachusetts, earlier in the summer.

You may have heard the expression “ship shape and Bristol fashion”. This referred to the products of the famed Herreshoff brothers’ boat yard in Bristol, RI.

The yard has been gone now for many years – but we just visited a wonderful museum there devoted to the ingenuity of this remarkable family. It is a sailor’s paradise, and an absolute Mecca for an aspiring (or even semi-retired) yacht desiger.

Captain Nat (Nathaniele Herreshoff) was far ahead of his time. He designed and raced very sophisticated catamarans in the 1870s – whipping everything in sight and promptly being banned. He designed fin keelers, with hdyrodynamic lead bulbs and spade rudders in the 1890s. He designed and built six America’s Cup defenders, all sorts of giant yachts, and a variety of naval vessels. The brothers also created steam engines, pumps, windlasses, sails – if it was on a boat, they made it. They had what today would be called a verticaly integrated business.

The museum features a fascinating collection of photos, many of the boats built by the yard – a few fully restored to their original glory – and an amazing collection of half models (Capt. Nat designed all his boats by first carving an exact scale model, then transferring the model to paper).

If you care about boats and are anywhere on the East Coast of the U.S., visit the Herreshoff museum in Bristol, Rhode Island!