The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-09-16
THE BLIND sHIPBUILDER.
John r. Herreshoff and His Wonder
full Steamboats,.

TO MS othce down town at certain hour.
He went, and found some representatives OF
the South American government They
wanted three torpedo boats of a novel design
built, and they wanted them built in sec
tIOns, so the story goes, so that they could
be shipped to their destination and then
put together. They wanted several other
odd conditions i'll the boats, and then they
wanted to know for how much HerreshoH
would built them.
Il must have time to think it over" he
said.
How long tine"
"Oh. twenty minutes"
Twenty minutes for blind man to con-
slider the plans aud specifications for these
torpedo boats to consider them without
pencil or paper, to perforce roll them over
carefully and infinitely in his head! But he
did it. In twenty minutes he had made a
mental estimate Of what they would cost, he
got the contract, and they were, at the
specified time, packed and ready for ship
ment That was a remarkable incident,
but John HerreshoH is remarkable
man, and he has built many remarkable
boats
Bristol has been town about as long as
King Philip has been in his grave. To-day
it is a good specimen OF well-preserved and
decorous old age-shady, Estless, almost
gloomy in spots, The elm trees ON either
side of the broad street locked arms over
head years ago, and the sun has had an I'M
successful struggle to get through every
bright summer day since Most OF the trees
were planted at u time when nearly 100
foreign vessels a year sailed up the pictur-
esque inlet. in charity called Bristol Harbor,
and discharged their goods. Bot no foreign
vessels sail up there now. The docks are
mostly gone, the old resorts where the
jolly tars sat and spun their yarns over
their pipes and toddy are gone; the char
acter of the place is completely changed.
Yet, walking down one of the long shady
streets till YOU come almost to tho waters
edge you actually come across one shpyard,
and what is moro, if you go just now, you
will walk up straight t. a steel vessel loom
ing gracefully out of the stocks and rafting
away under the hammers of force of work
men SO that you can hardly hear yourself
shout. Itwould surprise you hardly any
more to 90 over to Hunters point some
day and find it all set out TO tea plants
than to come upon that iron hull 148
feet long and the accompanying work
shops of the HerreshCff Manufacturing
Company.
These works of the HerreshofFs are about
the most conspicuous thing left TO remind
Bristol of her trading days. The Herreshotf
children played about the old ship yards.
The Herreshoffs took to boats. Boats got
into their blood more or less from both
sides of the house. 1t wasn't strange, there
tore, that John HerreshotR began whiting
out boats as soon as he was old enough to
manage a jackknife. In his 18th year he
built a good-sized craft for sailing on the
bay.
Then he lost his sight. Gradually film
came over his eyes, and fiually shut off
forever the last dim glimpse Of Bristol and
her boats.
But he went on building boats Just the
same-not, of course, as il nothing had hap
pened, for his methods of perception had TO
be radically changed. Instead of studying
the grace and strength of lines by the eye,
the matter became to Herreshoff at once q
more abstract study, mental calculation.
He had the task before him of carrying in
his mind the models he worked upon. The
objects he had seen with his eyes in the first
fifteen years of mis- life he could summon up
into his mind again.
Under the enforced habit of mental act
ivity, without the interruption and sug
gestion Of outside objects, his mind grew to
be one of remarkable concentration and
acuteness. He became able for instance,
to set up before himself, from q careful de-
scription, piece Of machinery, aud to ex-
plain its workings and it, faults. His sense
of touch developed to wonderful sensi-
tiveness, too. He learned to recognized the
power of lines by rubbing hts fingers slowly
over q marble, and how we'll he succeeded
in find the good and discarding the bad has
been shown by many craft built in the
early days of his business which made a
record on tho Naragansett like the old Qui
Vive, for several years the fastest boat on
the coast, and the Sadie, q 52-foot sloop,
which was sold to Mr.. Burgess
But this was when Herreshotf was build
ing only sailing vessels. 1t was not
until after 1878, when Nathaniel Herreshof
became interested with his brother that the
Herreshoff steam vessels made their appear
ance John Herreshof had been thinking
over the coil boiler idea for some time, and
when it was applied to steam craft it was
so successful that the building of sailing
vessels was at once abandoned. Tho in
dustry at once jumped into prominence,
and the shops were used for making every
part of the vessel John B. Herreshotf be-
came the president and treasurer of the
company, Nathaniel Herreshoff the general
superintendent and designer, Charles Young
the secretary, and Albert Almy chief OF
construction.
There is no doubt tn" in the public mind
there is a partial misapprehenson of the part
the third HerTeshoff takes in tho construc-
ton of boats IN the shops of the company.
The average individual who has heard of
Herreshoff would very likely expect to find
him industriously at work upon a model or
LAYING down the lines in some ingenious
way for a new boat But there are a big
boiler shop, engine shop, boat shop, repair
ing shops, and docks all with their quota
of men, whom john b. Herreshoff, as the
president and head of the company, CON
trolls He will be found usually in business
hours sitting behind a little railing in ono
of the rooms Of the office, quietly resting
one arm on tho desk at his side. he Is worry
busy-jllst az busy as il his eyesignt were
as good as an eagles. Secretary Young is
sitting at the desk by his side and reading
letters bills, orders, all kinds of business
communications. HerresAoff carries them
swiftly along in his mind, one after the
other. II you should happen to drop into
the Office about noon, say, you would see
him get up unatch the gate to the
railing with perfect ease, walk TO the hat
rack where his hat is hanging, with two or
three more, aud take his down without
tumble He will tell you to come down to the
boat slip and see the new steel yacht they
are buiding-Uhe Vallemena-for George s.
Brown Of Baltimore the first steel vessel
the Herreshoffs ever built, and the first, Of
course, ever bull in Rhode Island and when
YOU go down with him you must become very
conscious Of the somewhat mortifyine fact
that that blind man knows more about that
boat than you would IL you looked at it
from now until Christmas. Iie will be able
TO give you mathematical facts about that
boat or others about the yard that would
swamp about anyone else but boat
builder.
Na,Lah;at n uarraeboP xvbo io not hi;,,d