Herreshoff, Nathanael Greene

Herreshoff, Nathanael Greene (1848–1938), American naval architect and yacht designer, nicknamed ‘the wizard of Bristol’, who was the progenitor of the Universal Rule. He was born near Bristol, RI, on the shores of Narragansett Bay, and was one of a gifted family of six sons and three daughters. After a course at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in mechanical engineering, the nearest subject to naval architecture then available, Herreshoff spent the next nine years with the Corliss Steam Engine Company at Providence, largely on the design side. In 1876 he produced a 9-metre (30-ft) catamaran, Amaryllis, an innovation to Narragansett waters, which soundly beat all the local sandbaggers and gave a number of twin-hulled imitators of his design a brief triumph until catamarans were outlawed by changes in the racing rules.

When the family business, the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company, was formed at Bristol, Herreshoff turned his talents to the design of steam yachts and launches, and their machinery, while designing a succession of beautiful racing yachts. Among them was the cutter Gloriana (1891), a revolutionary design, and the schooner Westward, which raced with the British Big Class between the wars. But today Herreshoff is best known for his string of successful defenders of the America's Cup: Vigilant (1893), Defender (1895), Columbia (1899 and 1901), Reliance (1903), and Resolute (1920).