A Woods Hole spritsail boat is a small sailing and rowing craft, constructed entirely of wood, and fastened with iron or copper. It was used historically for fishing, island mail deliveries, racing, or day sailing off the coast of southeastern Massachusetts, especially in the waters of Buzzards Bay and Vineyard Sound near the town of Woods Hole, a community of Falmouth in Barnstable County, Massachusetts. Although the sprit sailing rig has ancient roots,Casson L. 1954. The sails of the ancient mariner. Archaeology 7: 215-219. the Woods Hole spritsail boats were built and used mainly in the period between the US Civil War and World War I, becoming most prevalent during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The original boats were employed almost exclusively in fishing, including handlining for finfish, trap fishing for lobster, or digging with tongs for bivalve shellfish, but by the late 19th century, newer and lighter spritsail boats began to be built for recreational sailing and racing.A letter dated January 12, 1946 from Dr. Robert P. Bigelow to Dr. Alfred Redfield stated that "...the Penzance people (residents of Woods Hole living on Penzance Point) had a lighter [Woods Hole spritsail] boat built on a standard pattern for their children to sail and race..." Woods Hole Historical Museum Archives. Boats: Spritsail Collection 1896–2017, File 1.32.a. Woods Hole, MA: Woods Hole Historical Museum. This transition coincided with the emergence of Woods Hole as a summer coastal tourist destination, when the Cape Cod Central Railroad began service from Buzzards Bay in 1872, followed by a private subscription railroad that was extended from Boston in 1884.Dryer PC. 2020. The railroad comes to Falmouth. Spritsail 34(1):3-8. This spritsail boat has now disappeared as a type, but its cultural significance endures in New England maritime museums, remaining a material symbol of the small community of Woods Hole.
History The Woods Hole spritsail boat has been cited by historic preservationistsDillion D. 1982. Notes concerning Woods Hole spritsail boats. Manuscript. Mystic, CT: Manuscripts Division, G.W. Blunt White Library, Mystic Seaport Museum, Inc., August, 2pp.Bray A, Bray M. 1971. Woods Hole Spritsail Boat. Manuscript. Mystic, CT: Manuscripts Division, G.W. Blunt White Library, Mystic Seaport Museum. and boat-builders alike as illustrative of the transition of small coastal sailing vessels from working boats to pleasure craft during the late 19th century, reflecting clearly a growing societal shift that increasingly substituted leisure for industry.See a broad description of this shift summarized in: Stilgoe JR. 1994. Alongshore. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, pp. 131-171, especially Chapter 5 on "Skiffs." Valois J. 1996. The centennial history of the Woods Hole Yacht Club. Spritsail 10(2): 1-16. The construction of these boats exemplified practical innovations in wooden boatbuilding, likely evolving from Newport Point boats and conflating the catboat with the whaleboat for application to an often challenging coastal environment. Although these boats fell out of use in the early 20th century, their legacy has been preserved in several museums of maritime history, and they remain a long-standing material symbol of the local Woods Hole community. Described by turns as "handy", "seaworthy", and "shippy",Taylor + Snediker Woodworking. 1997. Taylor and Snediker Woodworking presents "Roberta" a classic New England catboat. One page advertisement. Mystic, CT. the Woods Hole spritsail boat never achieved the permanence and widespread reputation accorded some of its one-design contemporaries, such as Maine’s North Haven Dinghy (which also started out as a spritsail boat), or its successors, such as the Beetle Cat of Wareham, Massachusetts. The Woods Hole spritsail boats were constructed by builders ranging from New London, ConnecticutInvoice "For one 14 ft Lap Work Boat Galv'd fasten'd" issued on July 7, 1879 by George Rogers & Co., Manufacturers of Pleasure, Whale, Seal, Yawl Smack, Surf, and Quarter Boats, New London, Connecticut, to Mr. B.L. Gifford. Woods Hole Historical Museum Archives. Boats: Spritsail Collection 1896–2017, File 1.8. Woods Hole, MA: Woods Hole Historical Museum. to Portland, Maine, but most were built in one of the coastal communities surrounding Buzzards Bay or Vineyard Sound. Some of the most important boat builders from the New England region built Woods Hole spritsail boats, including the Wilton Crosby yard of Osterville, MassachusettsCrowell PS. 1960. Woods Hole Sprit Sail Boat. Material furnished by Mr. Prince S. Crowell of Woods Hole in a letter to Mystic Seaport. Woods Hole Historical Museum Archives. Boats: Spritsail Collection 1896–2017, File 1.7. Woods Hole, MA: Woods Hole Historical Museum. and the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company (HMCo.) of Bristol, Rhode Island.The Herreshoff Catalogue Raisonnḗ lists three Woods Hole Spritsail boats built by the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company (HMCo.): Dude (#474s, 1896), Wiz (#498s, 1898), and Gee (#537s, 1900). Littell (1996; note ) suggests that as many as five Woods Hole spritsail boats were built, but there are no HMCo. records for the other two. Nathanael Herreshoff did make two additional half models of Woods Hole spritsail boats (#1233; 1900) and (#1303, 1900), but neither was lofted and built. https://herreshoff.info/index.htm E.E. ("Eddy") Swift of Woods Hole built three spritsail boats (Spy, Susie, and one that was never named), and all three of Swift's builds exist today on active display in the collections of maritime museums. The former was restored by R.H. ("Bob") Baker, and the latter two had been kept in nearly new condition in the basement of a barn in Woods Hole, only to be discovered upon Swift's death in 1964. Charles Eldred of Quissett Harbor was known to have built spritsail boats as well, including Emma (1898), but none are currently known to exist.
Possibly as many as 28 Woods Hole spritsail boats existed at one time, although the cumulative number of these boats that were built over time is unknown. The boats were unnumbered, but most had unique names. Today, only six original boats are known to exist: Old Pal (ca. 1860), Explorer (formerly T.C., standing for either "Tough Cuss" or "Tin Cup" or "Tea Cup") (1890); Spy (1893–94); Susie (1896); an unidentified boat (ca. 1905); and E.E. Swift’s unnamed boat (1913–14). Four replicas were built from 1973 to 2000 following plans or loftings (or both) taken from the originals, and these continue to be used in museum liveries or for recreational sailing. They include Sandy Ford (1972); Nonnamessett (1983); Roberta (1997); and Dewey (2000). Eight of the extant spritsail boats are held in the collections of maritime museums, and only two (Nonnamessett and the unidentified boat) are known to be in private hands. Six sets of plans have been published (T.C. [Explorer],Kleinschmidt J. 1961. The Woods Hole Spritsail-Boat 'T.C.' 13'6" x 6'0" circa 1896. Sail Plan, Lines & Offsets, Construction Plan. Mystic, CT: Daniel S. Gregory Ships Plans Library, Mystic Seaport Vessels & Small Craft Collection, Mystic Seaport Museum (February).https://store.mysticseaport.org/ships-plans/explorer-woods-hole-spritsail-boat.html Spy,Dillion DW. 1985. The Woods Hole Spritsail Boat 'Spy' 13'6" x 6'0" circa 1898. Four sheets of plans for 13.5 ft. spritsail boat, SPY (built circa 1893), designed by Edward E. Swift. SP.29.177. Mystic, CT: Daniel S. Gregory Ships Plans Library, Miscellaneous Yachts Collection, Mystic Seaport. http://mobius.mysticseaport.org/detail.php?category1=&object_type=&name_title=&maker=&place_made=&date_made=&custom01=spritsail+boat&op-earliest_year=%3D&earliest_year=&op-latest_year=%3D&latest_year=&module=objects&type=advanced&kv=411901&record=2&module=objects Susie,Dillion DW. 1985. The Woods Hole Spritsail Boat 'Susie' 13'6" x 6'0" circa 1896. Lines and Offsets, Construction Details, Sail and Spars. Mystic, CT: Daniel S. Gregory Ships Plans Library, Mystic Seaport Vessels & Small Craft Collection, Mystic Seaport Museum.https://store.mysticseaport.org/ships-plans/susie-woods-hole-spritsail-boat.html Swift’s unnamed boat,Dillion DW. 1985. Woods Hole Spritsail Boat Accession #68.2 by E.E. Swift 13'6" x 6'0" 1913. Lines and Offsets, Construction Details, Sail & Spars. Mystic, CT: Daniel S. Gregory Ships Plans Library, Mystic Seaport Vessels & Small Craft Collection, Mystic Seaport Museum. https://store.mysticseaport.org/ships-plans/woods-hole-spritsail-boat-by-swift.html Sandy Ford,Costelloe SF. 1972. The building of the Woods Hole spritsail boat. Work Study Class Thesis. Mystic, CT: Registrar's Office, Mystic Seaport Museum (December). Referenced in: Bray M, Fuller BAG, Vermilya PT. 2001. "Woods Hole Spritsail Boats." In Chapter One: Cat-Rigged. Mystic Seaport Watercraft. Mystic, CT: Mystic Seaport Museum, p. 8. . The thesis includes line drawings in the back. The author's work to build the boat was supervised by John Gardner in the museum's Small Boat Lab. and Ace of Clubs,Starr M. 1998. Lines plan for Ace of Clubs, Woods Hole Spritsail Boat. [Measurements taken from half hull.] Mystic, CT: Mystic Seaport Museum (March 24). The model was owned by Robert Griffin at the time of the measurements, and a note on the back states that the boat was "Built by Samul [sic] Eldridge for F.L. Gifford. 1888." the latter drawn from a half model. These plans are maintained in the collection at the Mystic Seaport Museum in Mystic, Connecticut, and, although some contain construction details, most were drawn primarily for research—not construction. Construction drawings are available online for two of the HMCo. builds, including those for Dude and Gee. One set of (unpublished) loftings were taken from Swift's unnamed boat by David Martin for building Nonnamesset (1983),Martin A. 1983. "Spritsail." Woods Hole Weekly. (May). and loftings must have been made for Roberta (1997) and Dewey (2000) as well.
Upon its establishment in 1897, the Woods Hole Yacht Club adopted the spritsail boat as one of its main racing classes—eventually organizing it into two separate classesAnon. 1899. Excerpt from the Racing Schedule from the Woods Hole Yacht Club for the racing season of 1899: SPRITSAIL BOATS--SPECIAL CLASSIFICATION. Woods Hole Historical Museum Archives. Boats: Spritsail Collection 1896–2017, File 1.3. Woods Hole, MA: Woods Hole Historical Museum. See also: Woods Hole Yacht Club. 1898. Constitution, By-Laws, Sailing Regulations, Etc., Etc. New York: Press of Charles F. Bloom, 52pp. https://woodsholeyachtclub.org/about-whyc-2/1898bylaws/—and spritsail boats were raced there until at least 1909. Occasional races were sanctioned independently thereafter. Many of the races were said to have involved financial prizes and trophies.
Construction details
Because the Woods Hole spritsail boat's sailing rig comprises both a single mast located in the bow immediately behind the stem and exhibits an overall length to beam ratio of approximately 2:1, it has been described as a type of or as having evolved from the Cape Cod catboat.Bray M, Fuller BAG, Vermilya PT. 2001. "Woods Hole Spritsail Boats." In Chapter One: Cat-Rigged. Mystic Seaport Watercraft. Mystic, CT: Mystic Seaport Museum, pp. 15-17. (Interestingly, although catboats typically are gaff rigged, the canonical depiction of a “catboat” in the painting “Breezing Up (A Fair Wind)” by Winslow Homer in fact carries a sprit rig. Notably, the sprit rig was the most common rig for small "rowing-sailing" boats through the mid- to late-19th century, giving way only later to gaff and Bermuda rigs.)