Arthur Curtiss James and (above) Aloha II which was launched in 1910 and eventually scrapped in 1938. The pretty 32ft launch that is lying alongside Aloha II was constructed for James in 1930 by the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company and is thought to still survive. James’s original fortune derived from being the biggest shareholder – by inheritance – in the Phelps Dodge company but he grew immeasurably wealthier through his relentless and relentlessly successful investment in the emerging US railroad industry. Over time he accumulated over 40,000 miles of track and infrastructure, eventually controlling one-seventh of the entire US rail network
promote kinships from afar with a designer based on the vessels he produced. That sort of thing happened more in the
days before wind tunnels, test tanks and, ultimately, computer modelling began making vessels look so similar. Before the science of determining the most efficient shapes for vehicles moving through air (automobiles in particular) or water took over, the art of design prevailed. Just as any eight-year-old boy worth his salt could tell a Ford from a Chevrolet a quarter mile away in the 1950s, serious sailors could identify a Herreshoff, a Burgess, a Crane, an Alden or a Fife from the subtle curve of a sheer line, the rise of a bow, or the flow of a stern quarter. The look of every yacht in those early days bore the designer’s unmistakable signature. Crane was regarded as an ‘amateur’
designer who drew yachts for himself and his friends. His body of work would even- tually rank him among the most note - worthy naval architects. He started a small design shop, but quit to run the family’s mining business, the St Joseph Lead Company in Missouri. Crane’s involvement with mining surely
had something to do with Arthur’s inclina- tion towards him as a designer. Crane was president of St Joseph Lead for 34 years and so was a member of the Phelps Dodge board of directors – as was its biggest shareholder Arthur Curtiss James – as a ‘renowned mining engineer.’ Somehow he made time to design a bunch of beautiful, significant yachts, counting several 12- Metres including Gleam, and the J-Class Weetamoe. Crane was also from Oyster Bay, New York, and a fellow member of the Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club. Even without all the connections the
talent Crane’s lovely designs revealed would alone have been sufficient to attract Arthur’s attention. In any case, Arthur tried him out with his little lifeboat for Coronet. In his book, Yachting Memories, Crane wrote that the lifeboat for James was his first professional order as a
52 SEAHORSE
designer: ‘The boat was to be designed with a self-bailing cockpit and watertight compartments so she might be a lifeboat and yet be so designed that she would be fun to sail when Coronet was in port.’ The only indication that the lifeboat was
a success was Arthur James’s subsequent request to Crane for the design of a sea - going auxiliary yacht to replace Coronet. ‘This yacht was to be a steam auxiliary of 126ft waterline,’ Crane wrote, ‘rigged as a brigantine, with square yards on the fore- mast and fore-and-aft sail on the main.’ That’s quite a leap, from a 15ft sailing lifeboat to a 160ft, full-rigged brigantine. As a designer Crane was interested in
producing the fastest possible square- rigger. Yachts of the size James had requested were indeed the fastest sailing vessels in the world at the time. But Crane knew that to support the larger rig he envi- sioned he would have had to reduce the interior living space to accommodate the more robust gear that would be required. ‘I am sure that as she finally came out,’ Crane wrote, ‘with the smaller rig and more comfortable quarters inside, James enjoyed the Aloha more… but it was a little disappointing to the designer.’ Alohawas built of steel by the JN Robins
& Company shipyard (having merged with Erie Basin and Drydock Company) in Brooklyn, New York, and launched on 22 June 1899. The New York Times covered such events in those days. The Times reported the yacht was 160ft overall, and would carry 13,000ft2
of canvas. Her beam
was 29ft 6in, she had 16ft of depth below decks, and her sides were full, allowing for a main saloon that measured 15 by 25ft. There were watertight bulkheads
throughout, but no mention of a piano. Two items in the report were extraordinary for the day. First, the yacht’s funnel was of the telescoping variety so it could be lowered when under sail. The other was even more noteworthy: Aloha had a feathering pro- peller, with blades that folded up when not in use to reduce drag. Finish work on the
yacht would be expedited so her commis- sioning would be in time for the New York Yacht Club cruise in August. The New York Yacht Club’s archives do not, alas, include a list of the yachts participating in that cruise. What the Times piece did not include
was the confusion over Aloha’s figure- head. Arthur had told Crane that he wanted his yacht to have a figurehead, and he’d decided to surprise his wife Harriet by having it carved in her likeness. He supplied Crane with portraits of Harriet. Crane gave the photographs to the sculptor and forgot about it amid the more essential details of construction. Finally, when it was approaching the time for the figurehead to be installed, Crane went to see the sculptor. ‘When I went to inspect it,’ Crane wrote, ‘I found it had been mod- elled in the nude. The sculptor said that was the way figureheads should be… I per- suaded him to add some Greek drapery.’ In fact, it was Arthur who had jogged
Crane’s memory about the figurehead. Arthur had stopped by the sculptor’s studio to check the work in progress and had been greatly amused by what he saw. He couldn’t disagree that the figurehead tradition had been dutifully followed with the topless rendering of his wife’s likeness. But he knew a bit of draping would have to be done. Arthur had arranged for the sculptor to
leave him the key to his studio so he could privately show Harriet what would be more of a surprise than he had planned. Anyone passing by the studio that evening would have heard gales of laughter coming from the young married couple, followed by a titillated female voice saying, ‘But Arthur, you know that’s not me!’ Through their yacht club and design
associations Arthur and Clinton Crane became close. ‘He was such a loyal friend,’ Crane wrote, ‘that he always forgave me my mistakes and stood by me through thick and thin. He loved the sea, was never seasick and especially loved long ocean voyages where the square rigs were really at their best.’
JOSEPH DANIEL
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