22 November 2010
NEITH
(The 1907 flush-deck Herreshoff-built sloop NEITH at her anchorage in Beverly, MA, 1975, Photographer unknown.)
I looked through the little book with growing curiosity. Whoever the author was- or had been, since it seemed to have been written long time ago- might be revealed in the course of forensic examination of the text. Based on the reference date, it was a totally different world. The author apparently did not have access to a calendar, which is an old fashioned reference document that served the human race for thousands of years before they became irrelevant, with network date and time constantly displayed by devices in the pocket or on the belt.
This appears to date from 1975, the year before America’s Bicentennial, and less than a dozen years after the near-probably conspiracy orchestrated the murdered President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, the sad 47th anniversary on which I write today. The narrator launched into his story abruptly:
“It is an unknown date in late July, 1975 (somewhere around the 20th I’d imagine).
This is being written aboard the 54-ft LOA yacht NEITH, former transatlantic record holder. She is currently under restoration by Edgar Callahan in Beverly, Mass.
She is a remarkable boat. Built in 1907 by the Herreshoff Mfg. Co. of Rhode Island (No. 665, according to the small silver plaque to my immediate right). Next to it is an inscription on silver from the Royal Clyde Yacht Club signifying that NEITH took part in the centenary Cruise of the Royal Clyde in 1956.
NEITH held the transatlantic record for about 19 years back in the 20’s and 30’s. She is really cool.
No superstructure mars the clean sweep of her deck, just three small hatches nearly flush with the deck. The interior of the boat is torn apart right now. Only a few of the original fixtures remain in place. Jim says that Ed has most of them in storage, pending some major hull work in the next year or so.
Marginalia, apparently added at a later date: * In the confusion surrounding Ed’s decision to purchase a 40-ft Valiant, I understand the NEITH is for sale (Aug 10th) asking $12,500-15,000. Most likely client is a kid who already has a couple boats. He is looking for something fast. Rumor has it she is to be fitted out as a smuggler for the trade with The Islands. It would be great to see her tricked out for speed again, but can you imagine what the shell from a 5” gun would do? There would be sacks of dope drifting ashore all up and down the Gulf Coast. I could probably raise enough to cop the boar, but I couldn’t dump another ten g’s into her right away. Too bad.
The narrative continues: “Dig this, if you will. This giant boar was not only set up as a “day sailer,” but went down the ways without an engine. Just how people managed to cruise into crowded harbors unpowered except for sail amazes me. The relics of the great days of sail are scattered up and down this rugged northeast coast.”
“Really quite remarkable. And the best feature is that I am the current “Master” of the boat- me being the only soul aboard her. I am scrawling this on one of the ouches in the main salon, listening to Jefferson Airplane on my potable tape deck- I am on shore power, thank God, drinking cup after cup of bitter Nescafe instant coffee, reading the Sunday Globe and generally lounging. I am living onboard by the grace of Mr. Callahan, owner, who was forced to move ashore with his bride to attend to the birth of their second son. “
“I should perhaps note the circumstances that have conspired to deposit my fat ass in these remarkable surroundings, as time certainly has a way of dulling the otherwise steel-tap features of my frontal lobes. I am currently recovering from a two-week battle with overindulgence known colloquially as “The Eastern Connection ’75.”
(Strange full-page illustration. Photo Socotra. Artist Unknown.)
“This period of debauchery coincided with the occasion of Mr. Beau Diddley’s first two-week vacation period from electronic giant RCA. Beau is laboring through his first grown-up job as a mechanical engineer. He is based in the wonderful city of Camden, New Jersey.”
“Beau thinks it sucks. He is designing some tracking devices for 36-track tape recorders used in space. Beau thinks it sucks. The FBI now also has a full dossier on him. Did I mention that Beau thinks it sucks?”
“But let me begin at the beginning, wherever that was.”
“I am currently “at my leisure’ from corporate America after a two-year stint as a textbook salesman in story-book Detroit, Michigan. The trials and tribulations of that jazz is probably best recounted in my assorted correspondence from that harrowing period. It was a splendid job in a lousy place- much improved by the kindness of my pal Porky’s parents, who rented me the maid’s quarters to the 1930s-era mansion on Afton Street in Palmer Woods they bought for a song after the riots. The place used to belong to the Burton Abstract and Title fortune, from what I heard. Really swank.”
“And of course, the close proximity to Ann Arbor where many of my associates still labored for their bachelor’s degrees, even if the war was finally over and the Draft long history.”
Marginalia: “The Author wishes to apologize for certain misrepresentations of material fact.”
Then the narrative continued: “My plan had been to somehow assemble $6-10 grand (Ks here on the East Coast) and do some traveling. I performed my duties competently, achieved a 17% sales increase and got myself into hot water with a nasty little paragraph I dashed off to a book-grabber.”
The little (illegible) -sucker was an engineering student who wanted the instructor’s manual to one of our upper-division engineering text, one on which I had a fat margin and a small but guaranteed annual sale; naturally I checked with the Chairman of the department at the University of Detroit. He said the kid was a chiseler, and I dashed off a nasty note to him.”
It must have been pretty effective, since that note wound up on the desk of Harold McGraw and the Chairman of the Board of the Company a week or so later.
The upshot of the whole deal was that I was on the spot, not the chiseler; I had a pay-raise in the mill at the same time. Well, as it went down, the $75,000 a year loafers got their thumbs out of their asses and the shit hit the fan. No raise, that was for sure, and not only that, I heard they coined the term “permanent prohibition” specifically in my honor.
In a fit of pique, I described exactly where they put their publishing company, or at least my $464,000 market share of it. I really resented the treatment; not that I thought I had not over-reacted to the attempted theft of our intellectual property, but what the hell.
Anyhow, that was that. What do you do when you are young, on the street, and have a late model car that is paid for and $6,200 in the bank?
Take a vacation, of course. I coasted through the last few weeks of my employment, greatly aided in the endeavor by the return from points west of my pal Porky, who brought with him some excellent (words illegible) for only $70 which is a lot better than what (words illegible) is going for, even it is isn’t really from there at all. “
Ed note: There is a large stain, possibly from coffee, that obscures an apparent discussion of vacation plans in Columbia and Jamaica.
(Color view of Sloop NEITH from port quarter in Beverly Marina. Photographer unknown.)
Editor’s note: Wooden boats are creatures of finite life, although her name in in honor of the Egyptian goddess of war and of hunting; her symbol at the Royal Clyde displayed her symbol of two crossed arrows over a shield. The desire to keep these graceful wooden things afloat and alive is compelling to some. NEITH was in jeopardy at the time of this account, owned apparently by seagoing hippy-gypsies. She first crossed the Atlantic eastbound for the United Kingdom shortly after being completed in Rhode Island. Based on internet records, she apparently spent the War Years at the Royal Clyde yacht Club. She was still active through the 1950s, and the author notes from the centennial plaque commemorating the 1956 RCYC cruise. The 1960s were a decade of decline at anchor in the estuary of the Clyde River. She was purchased late in the decade by a young American consortium for her elegant lines, albeit covered with seagull guano, and for a song. The Americans sailed her across the Atlantic, navigating by dead-reckoning and a damaged taffrail log with one of three fins broken off. The yachters simply allowed a one-third deviation for speed of advance and befuddled the reporter from Wooden Boat Magazine who believed their behavior to be reckless in the extreme. After the mid-1970s, extensive alteration of NEITH’s rigging was undertaken by one Edgar Callahan, who replaced the running back-stays with a masthead fore and aft rig and moved aboard with his family. He moved on to a land-based residence and NEITH passed into the hands of Douglas Hershant of Mystic, Connecticut, who completed an interim restoration which included the removal of the diesel engine. NEITH was present at the 1981 Herreshoff Rendezvous, arriving under tow for the race. In 2005, NEITH had a complete plank-off rebuild at the hands of Rick Waters, a Mystic boat-builder, assisted by class of 2005 International Yacht Restoration School (IYRS) graduate Jennifer Harner. The lovely wooden sloop celebrated her centennial in 2007, lively and under sail.
See also, The book of wooden boats, Volume 1
Copyright 2010 Vic Socotra
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