KNOCKABOUT FISHING SCHOONER, 1902 

 Exhibition Half-Model, usnm 310888 



Hele)i B. Thomas 



This half-model was made to exhibit a proposed 

 design for a fishing schooner without a bowsprit. 

 The design was prepared in 1901 by Thomas F. 

 McManus, of Boston, Massachusetts, who had then 

 been designing fishing schooners for about ten years 

 and had adapted the idea which had previously been 

 employed only in small sailing yachts, the inboard- 

 rigged "knockabout" sloops. McManus thought the 

 new design would prevent the loss of fishermen by 

 being washed ofT the bowsprit while handling head 

 sails in heavy weather, a then too common accident. 



For nearly a year this model was exhibited by 

 McManus on Atlantic Ave., in Boston, in an effort 

 to attract someone who would build a vessel to the 

 design. The owner who finally made the experiment 

 was Captain William Thomas of Portland, Maine, 

 who had the Helen B. Thomas built at Essex, Massa- 

 chusetts, by Oxner & Story and the schooner was 

 launched in 1902. She proved to be a very fast 

 sailer, and was long considered one of the fastest of 

 her rig; she was also a fine sea boat, and a successful 

 fisherman. It is said she could tack full-to-full in 20 

 to 25 seconds. 



The half-model shows a yacht-like hull having a 

 short, straight keel with heavy drag, a long, pointed 

 bow and long fore overhang, with a hollow profile 

 below the load waterline like a racing yacht. The 

 post raked sharply and the counter was very long, 

 ending with a sharply raked elliptical transom. 

 The sheer was great, particularly forward, and the 



The Shipv.^rd of Oxner and Storv at Essex, 

 Massachusetts, in 1902. The schooner Helen B. 

 Thomas, the first knockabout fisherman, is on the 

 ways second from the left, ready to launch. (Smith- 

 sonian photo 45/8^-d.) 



bow was high and light. The entrance was long and 

 easy and the run very fine. The midsection showed 

 a small, quick hollow at the garboards, a rising 

 straight floor, and a hard bilge fairing into a slightly 

 tumble-home topside. 



The rig of this vessel was that of contemporary 

 schooners as to sails; she carried foresail, mainsail, 

 forestaysail, and jib, fore and main topsails and main- 

 topmast staysail, and a jib topsail. She differed from 

 her sisters, however, in having her forestay and jib 

 stay, as well as fore-topmast stay, all inside or on the 

 stemhead. 



Scale of model is Y^ inch to the foot. The Helen B. 

 Thomas was 106 feet 7 inches overall, 21 feet 6 inches 

 moulded beam, and she drew about 1 3 feet ready for 

 sea. Her register dimensions were 94.2 feet in 

 length, 21 feet 6 inches beam, 9.2 feet depth in hold, 

 and 76.99 gross tons. Her foremast was 40 feet 

 6 inches abaft the stemhead. She had 15 berths in 

 the long forecastle and 4 in the trunk cabin aft. 



The Helen B. Thomas was not duplicated, as later 

 designs, because of the cost had a shorter bow o\"er- 

 hang; but many knockabout fishermen were built, 

 and when auxiliary power came into use, practically 

 all the new schooners were knockabouts. The 

 introduction of this design and. later, of auxiliary 

 engines, were the final, basic changes in the design 

 of the New England fishing schooner. 



Given by Thomas F. McManus, naval architect, 

 Boston, Massachusetts. 



NEW JERSEY OYSTER SCHOONER, 1904 

 Builder's Half-Model, usnm 311089 

 Lines Plan, hamms 4-19. 



Anna M. Frome 



The schooner Anna M. Frome was built from this 

 model at Greenwich Piers, New Jersey, in 1904 by 

 William Parsons for the ovster fisherv. This schooner 



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