JULY 2025

Issue: No. 13

For those unfamiliar with the Edward W. Kane and James Gubelmann IYRS Maritime Library, you may be surprised to learn that in addition to thousands of cataloged books, periodicals and A/V materials, its holdings also include a variety of rare, valuable, fragile, and scarce items. These include hundreds of charts, boat plans, letters, posters, brochures, press kits, typescript or handwritten histories, photographs, slides, films, and video tapes. Ephemera such as wearable items, burgees, flags and an impressive display of trophies, paintings, and models are also preserved, protected, and displayed among the Library’s Special Collections.

Contents: Issue No. 13

FEATURE: AMARYLLIS II - The Herreshoff Catamaran

FEATURE: AMARYLLIS II - The Kodacolor Film

NEW ACQUISITION: The Historic American Merchant Marine Survey

COLLECTIONS: Timeless Tools of the Trade; 100% "AI"

AMARYLLIS II : A Uniquely Historic Yachting Film

In an IYRS online feature, Librarian Francis Frost wrote a comprehensive essay on a film recently donated to the IYRS Maritime Library Collection with a unique two-fold historical significance-- it showcases 1930's state-of-the-art technology in both yacht design and in film making. Excerpts of each section, the Amaryllis II: The Herreshoff Catamaran and Amaryliss II: The Kodacolor Film are included below. Complete Report & Full Video.

The library has recently acquired a unique film of Amaryllis II, a Herreshoff designed and built catamaran, recorded on rare Kodacolor film in September 1933. This is the only period motion picture known of a Herreshoff catamaran, and is one of the earliest amateur color films of any yacht. Below, we describe the catamaran, its history and sailing trials, the film itself - introduced in 1928 and the first color film available to amateurs - as well as the likely photographer who made this unique film, and the type of camera used.

AMARYLLIS II : The Herreshoff Catamaran

The Rudder magazine, September 1933; Amaryllis II at Herreshoff Marine Museum, Bristol, RI.

On 8 September 1933 an unusual vessel was launched at the Herreshoff boatyard in Bristol, Rhode Island, a 33’ catamaran, with two 28 inch wide hulls spaced 16 feet apart, connected by cross ties, struts and braces, and with a small seating platform suspended between the hulls. The frame of the vessel was not completely rigid, and ball and socket joints allowed each hull to move independently of the other, reducing stress on the vessel. This was not the first catamaran to be launched here - eight had preceded it - but this was the first in over fifty years.

Approximately two months earlier, a group of Detroit businessmen commissioned the construction of a catamaran for a cost of $4,000; that syndicate included Walter Chrysler, Edsel Ford, and Griswold Herreshoff. Their aim was to see if a racing class of these catamarans could be developed on Lake St. Clair, Michigan, where these men were active sailors at the Grosse Point Yacht Club.

Hull plan, 1933 (Courtesy M.I.T. Museum)

Construction had been quick, with A. Sidney DeWolf Herreshoff, another of Nathanael’s sons, responsible for the design which was based in large part on the last of Nathanael’s catamarans of the 1870s-- specifically, Amaryllis, a 24’ 10” catamaran that strikingly out-sailed the fastest, similar-sized yachts of the day. Amaryllis II was slightly longer and wider than her predecessors, and instead of being gaff-rigged like these other boats, she had a sliding gunter rig - basically a separate spar connected to the mast that provided extra sail height.

Monday the 18th of September was a fine, clear day with moderately strong west to north-east winds. George Owen - a naval architect, Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor, and amateur photographer / film-maker came down from Boston. With him was possibly Walter “Jack” Wood, also from M.I.T. and that afternoon they were taken out in the Herreshoff's launch Bubble by Clarence Herreshoff, another of Nathanael’s sons, to film the trials.

photo: Bubble, c.1912, courtesy HMM

The four people onboard Amaryllis II that day were Sidney DeWolf Herreshoff - shown clearly at the very beginning of the film in suit and cap inspecting the catamaran - Nicholas Potter, Rudolf Haffenreffer III, and his brother Carl. The movement of the independent hulls can be seen often in the film, however it was a windy day and, despite both fore and mainsail being reefed, at two particular points it is possible to see clearly the windward hull starting to bury itself quite dramatically.

“Twenty miles an hour under sail, which is by far the greatest speed ever attained with canvas and a hull drawn through water, has been made by a catamaran… A sail on the new craft, which carries a modern canvas rig, is said to be not easily forgotten, particularly in a fresh breeze. There is hardly any movement of the cockpit. It is compared to sitting on a bobsled.” ~ New York Times, October 1933

Twelve days after this film was taken George Owen returned to Bristol with the finished reel - this exact film - edited with splices in a few spots but essentially as filmed. Nathanael Herreshoff, who had so enjoyed his earlier catamaran sailing, had decided at age 85 not to go out on Amaryllis II for any of her trial sails, was going to get what might perhaps have been the next best experience. As he noted at the end of his diary entry for that day: “…in evening Prof. George Owen came with his wife and exhibited on screen beautiful moving pictures in color.”

AMARYLLIS II : The Film

At some point in the 1960s or 70s this film was acquired by George O'Day - the Olympic and America's Cup sailor, boat manufacturer, and film maker - and was among the collection of films donated by his family to the IYRS Maritime Library in 2024. The metal can that contained this film was marked only “Catamaran” on its label, and there was nothing to indicate the significance of its contents. View the complete film here.

Kodacolor film was introduced in 1928, the first color film made specifically for amateur film makers. However it was not the simplest film to use - only cameras with a lens of very wide aperture could be used, specific color filters had to be placed in front of both the camera lens and the projector lens, certain projectors and screens had to be used, and the size of the projected image was small compared to that for black and white films - so when Kodachrome film was introduced in 1935, with none of the above drawbacks, Kodacolor rapidly disappeared from use.



Kodacolor film is essentially black and white film with hundreds of microscopic, cylindrical lenses, or lenticles embossed onto its surface. The idea for "lenticular film" originated with Frenchman Rodolphe Berthon c.1910.

To use Kodacolor film, a 3-color filter unit was placed over a standard f.1.9 lens. The colors of the filter - essentially red, green and blue - could in combination produce any other colors. When filming, as the filtered light passed through the lenticles it was focused onto the emulsion in 3 precise gradations of tone. The film was processed in a similar manner to that of black and white, and when projected through a matching 3-color filter, the gradations were converted back into color on the screen.

To create a Kodacolor film required specialized and expensive equipment including a camera with a wide, f.1.9 aperture lens, Kodacolor filters for both camera and projector, a special aluminum finished projection screen in addition to the pricey film itself.

Illustration of process for camera & projector

Kodacolor & neutral density filters; Cine-Kodak Model K side-panel interior; Kodascope projector unit

A drawback of using color filters in front of a lens is that it reduces the amount of light passing through, and this was one of the principal reasons Kodacolor film could only be shot with the lens wide open, and preferably outside, on bright days. With the shallow depth of field and small focus area, accurate focusing was critical. The camera required mechanical winding every 30 seconds and the 50' film reel would need changing after recording just 2 minutes of footage. Onboard Bubble, George Owen would have dealt with these technical intricacies in addition to the normal challenges of marine photography, but it is thanks to him that we can experience chasing alongside Amaryliss II on her 20 knot sleighride!

Because of the unique way Kodacolor films were made, with the layer of minute lenticles lining one side, it was not possible to make a copy in the normal, darkroom manner. Aside from filming a projected image, with a fairly large loss of quality, there was no way to copy these films. So, unlike films in most other twentieth century formats, Kodacolor films are literally unique. They provide a vital record of the first color film making available to amateurs, recording the earliest attempts of the every-day movie maker to capture events important to him or her, in a completely new way.

The IYRS Maritime Library is thankful to both George Owen and George O'Day for creating, preserving and donating this important record of yachting and film-making history to our collection.

The Historic American Merchant Marine Survey

Steinlein’s proposal for this national survey of old or vanishing watercraft, to be carried out by unemployed shipyard and boatyard workers, was approved, and work began officially in March 1936. Unfortunately, the project ended only about a year and a half later, far sooner than intended, however these seven volumes show the plans, details, and in many cases photographs, of hundreds of working boats of various types, all printed on large, fold-out sheets.

In a letter Steinlein wrote to President Roosevelt at the time the project was being wound down in mid-1937, printed in the introduction to this work, he sums up what he felt had been achieved: “[This project’s] purpose was to preserve, by means of measured drawings, photographs, and written reports, the technical history of the development of the American merchant marine. This it has done with a good measure of success. There is now in the Watercraft Collection of the [Smithsonian] Museum a file of technical information on American craft which, small as it is, is probably the most comprehensive and valuable thing of its sort ever done.”

Steinlein finishes his comments to this edition, written in 1977, with these thoughts: In my 70-odd years, I have seen the elimination, at an ever-increasing rate, of trades and crafts that for generations have given to their practitioners that sense of worth and dignity that makes us human and capable of self-government. The division of labor has reached the point of diminishing returns: the products of dehumanized labor are no longer reliable, and we are losing the ability to tell the shoddy from the real…

The Robert H. Baker Collection

Timeless Tools of the Trade, 100% AI: Authentic Ingenuity

Throughout the centuries, shipwrights have used and adapted the common tools of cabinetmakers, coopers and other craftspeople to suit their needs. Simultaneously, they devised purpose-built implements specific to the myriad of processes --measuring, cutting, molding, scraping, shaping, smoothing, filing, fitting, joining, fastening, caulking, sealing, etc. – required to work the wood into the intricate forms that shape a watertight vessel.

Tools such as these were used and treasured by multiple craftspeople over hundreds of years; passing within family generations and from master to apprentice. Working wood with hand tools is one of the most ancient human practices.

The skilled craftsperson connects with the wood through his tools in a way that an automated machine cannot. Using hand tools emphasizes the process of creation, the resulting product is an authentic expression of human ingenuity.

As machines now learn artificial intelligence perhaps hand tools have always quietly absorbed the creative energy of their users? Being among the “old salts” that believe wooden boats have souls, I’d like to think so anyway. ~ SallyAnne Santos

photo above: A collection of chisels, owned and treasured by IYRS' own Senior Instructor, Warren Barker

Recommended Reading from the IYRS Maritime Library Collection:

Robert H. Baker: A Legacy of Small Craft, Anne Baker

The New Traditional Woodworker: From Tool Set to Skill Set to Mind Set, Jim Tolpin

Restoring, Tuning & Using Classic Woodworking Tools, Michael Dunbar

Museum of Early American Tools, Eric Slone

Tools of the Maritime Trades, John E. Horsley

IYRS MARITIME FILM COLLECTION:

Library Playlist: Digitized Films Available on YouTube

IYRS MARITIME LIBRARY COLLECTIONS

About IYRS Maritime Library

Mission Statement: The IYRS Maritime Library is an educational and cultural resource, committed to the mission of IYRS and to making its collections available to students, staff and faculty as well as to scholars, researchers, and members of the general public.

IYRS Library Committee is comprised of founder James Gubelmann, interested IYRS Board members, the IYRS librarian, IYRS staff members, and qualified individuals from the surrounding community.

• Location: 4th floor of the historic 1831 John Mecray Aquidneck Mill building on the IYRS campus at 449 Thames Street, Newport, Rhode Island.
• Open to: Students, Researchers and Armchair Sailors
• Hours: Wednesday-Saturday ~ 12pm-5pm
• Search: Online Catalog anytime

Items in the library's Special Collections have been acquired through donations by private individuals and families as well as by esteemed organizations including the Redwood Library & Athenaeum, the National Sailing Hall of Fame, Salve Regina University and of course the Museum of Yachting. In addition to IYRS's searchable online catalog, which utilizes the Library of Congress system, the IYRS Maritime Library was selected to join RIAMCO-- the prestigious online gateway to the Rhode Island Archival and Manuscript Collections. Most recently the IYRS Maritime Library was admitted as a member to the International Congress of Maritime Museums.

About Navigating the Stacks

Exploring the Collections of the IYRS Maritime Library

This newsletter was envisioned by IYRS Maritime Library co-founder and contributor James Gubelmann in order to illuminate the depth and richness of the Special Collections contained within. Gubelmann said, “Together with Editor, SallyAnne Santos, former Creative Director of the Museum of Yachting, we will provide insight into the library’s holdings, specifically highlighting contents of the Special Collections.”