Half Model, Fishing Schooner <I>Helen B. Thomas</I>
date: label: date made
content: 1901
label: Associated Date
content: early 20th century
label: ship built from model design
content: 1902
name: label: Captain who contracted the design
content: Thomas, William
label: contractors who built the ship
content: Oxner & Story
label: maker
content: McManus, Thomas F.
notes: label: Description
content: Unlike most of the half-hull models in the Smithsonian’s National Watercraft Collection, this one was not intended for use in shipbuilding. Instead, this half model of the fishing schooner <I>Helen B. Thomas</I> was made to show a radical design innovation to potential vessel owners. Its maker, Thomas F. McManus, a naval architect in Boston, adapted an idea from sailing yachts to the fishing schooners of New England. He eliminated the bowsprit, the spar projecting forward from the schooner’s bow, in an attempt to make the vessel safer for the fishermen working in treacherous conditions far offshore. In McManus’s new design, fishermen would not have to clamber out on the bowsprit to tend the jib (the vessel’s forward-most sail), a dangerous task especially in bad weather that, in McManus’s view, resulted too often in injury or death.
label: Description
content: McManus made this half-hull model and displayed it in his Boston office, hoping to attract a client. After nearly a year, Capt. William Thomas of Portland, Maine, decided to try the design and contracted with the Oxner & Story yard in Essex, Mass., to build the schooner. The <I>Helen B. Thomas</I> was launched in 1902 and measured 106’-7” overall, with a beam (width) of 21’-6” and 13’ deep. The vessel became a successful fishing schooner. While no other schooners were built to this exact design, many were built without the bowsprit, a schooner design that became known as the “knockabout.”
place: label: Associated Place
content: United States: Massachusetts, Gloucester
label: Associated Place
content: United States: New England
label: Associated Place
content: Atlantic Ocean
topic: label: related event
content: The Development of the Industrial United States
label: related event
content: The Emergence of Modern America
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Maritime
label: See more items in
content: Engineering, Building, and Architecture
label: See more items in
content: Work
label: See more items in
content: On the Water exhibit
label: Exhibition
content: On the Water
label: Exhibition Location
content: National Museum of American History
publisher: label: Related Publication
content: National Museum of American History. On the Water exhibition website
label: Related Web Publication
content: http://americanhistory.si.edu/onthewater
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Capt. Thomas F. McManus, Naval Architect, Boston, Massachusetts
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: TR.310888
label: catalog number
content: 310888
label: accession number
content: 131237
objectType: label: Object Name
content: schooner
label: Object Name
content: ship model, schooner
label: Object Name
content: schooner, half-model
label: Object Name
content: fishing schooner, half-model
label: Object Name
content: half model, fishing schooner
label: Other Terms
content: schooner; Maritime; Fishing
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 9 1/4 in x 32 in x 3 1/4 in; 23.495 cm x 81.28 cm x 8.255 cm