Alongside the well-known yacht designers of the twentieth century there were countless lesser-known naval architects and draftsmen, recognizable in many cases now only by their initials written in small letters in the corners of lines plans, blueprints and construction drawings. Some of those who worked with the principal designers had success branching out on their own – K. Aage Nielsen after working with John Alden and Sparkman & Stephens, Sam Crocker and Carl Alberg who also worked with Alden, Al Mason who worked for many years with Sparkman & Stephens, and some others – but many naval architects of the period, through timing, chance, or other reasons, have remained relatively unknown.
The IYRS Library is fortunate to have 70 blueprint plans from the collection of one such naval architect, Frederick R. Huntington (1905-52). These plans – of vessels whose design he worked on as well as particular plans by other designers he admired – provide an unusual glimpse into the ups and downs in the career of a talented naval architect.
Frederick Romeyn Huntington was born in Montclair, New Jersey, and grew up on Martha’s Vineyard where he apparently learned to sail on Menemsha Pond. He attended the University of Florida, studied naval architecture at MIT, and by the late 1920s or thereabouts his initials appear on the profile and deck plan of the fishing smack Pauline Boland, being worked on at the Charles Morse Boatyard in Thomaston, Maine [fig.1]. A proposal for a 26’ cutter, with Huntington’s name and a New York City address but no date, suggest his move to a larger market, and by 1930 he seems to have been working with W. Starling Burgess as there are two plans in the collection which, although not initialed by a draftsman, appear to be in Huntington’s hand. One is a plan of the tang fittings for the J Class Enterprise, and the other a detailed plan of the triangular, or “Park Avenue”, boom dated 1931 [fig. 2].
By 1932, we know definitely that Huntington was employed by the up-and-coming office of Sparkman & Stephens. Olin Stephens writes about him in his autobiography, All This and Sailing Too;
“Anticipating the way the office was changed by the war… I want to bow to four men who took on responsibility in those early days… Fred Huntington came in after Jim [Merrill] left [in 1932] and did the lines of some of our best boats, including Stormy Weather. Fred came from Martha’s Vineyard and seemed to have grown up in boats. He had a good eye and the same general views of design as I had. He wanted to win and was tough and thorough in his analysis of those factors that made for speed. Unfortunately the war saw the breakup of this small but able team [including Bob Henry, Al George and Gil Wyland] …Fred left to take a tempting war-related offer -feeling, I think, that our prospects were uncertain.“ ~ Olin J. Stephens
In the library collection there are nine blueprint plans drawn and initialed by Huntington relating to yachts that he worked on directly at Sparkman & Stephens, as well as 20 other plans from the same period drawn by other naval architects in the office but kept for one reason or another by him. Huntington must either have remained in contact with Starling Burgess, or perhaps renewed his acquaintanceship when Burgess was working with S&S on the design of Ranger in 1937, as there is a large, preliminary design plan of the 1934 Burgess-designed America’s Cup defender Rainbow in the collection, with many annotations in red pencil including the addition of the centerboard [fig. 3 above].
In March 1932 an article was published in Yachting magazine asking for information on the rapidly disappearing Nomans Land fishing boats. In the next issue of the magazine Huntington answered, providing a detailed article on the traditional double- ender, complete with plans of one of the few remaining boats on Martha’s Vineyard, the measurements taken off by Huntington himself [fig. 4]. A blueprint of the sail plan is in the Library collection; view a full list of plans in the Library catalog.
As Olin Stephens mentioned, by 1941 Huntington had left Sparkman and Stephens and begun his war work. His movements are harder to establish from the plans at this time, as he was clearly working in narrow supervisory roles or on specific smaller projects. A plan for “Gripes and Chock for 22ft Life Boat” being built by Neptune Boat and Davit Co, New Orleans, and a “22’ Metallic Life Boat” being built by Globe American Corp., Kokomo, Indiana, both dated 1941, have his name written boldly in pencil on the plans in his handwriting, seeming to indicate that these were projects he had some involvement with. The following year he was in Portland working at the Oregon Shipbuilding Corporation – his initials of approval appear on a whiteprint plan for a 37’ 9” “General Utility Boat” – and it seems probable that he remained there for a year or two.
In early 1944 Huntington returned to the east coast and, after a brief period working for himself in Warwick Neck, RI, he moved to Marion, MA, where he remained for the remainder of his career. He provided plans to the nearby Wareham Shipyards in late 1944 and 1945 for commercial projects, and to Cape Cod Shipbuilding as well, also in Wareham. One design, for a “Cape Cod ‘Minx’ 13’ “Cat Boat” dated January 1945 did actually go into production. It was being offered for sale by Cape Cod Shipbuilding from February that year (with the tagline “All Ready When Uncle Sam Says Go”), and was still being offered for sale in 1951.
Many of the plans drawn in the next few years were for smaller boats, and it seems as if Huntington, now in his early 40s, was unable, or unwilling, to generate business for larger, more profitable designs. His obituary published in The Standard Times of New Bedford on 27 December 1952, states that he had been working recently with the Bureau of Shipbuilding of the Navy Department, and at the time of his death (of unspecified cause) was working for the Luders Shipbuilding Company in Stamford, Connecticut. We hope now that other plans with the initials “F.R.H.” held in collections, libraries and museums will be identified, filling in more information on the short but varied career of this talented naval architect.
Frederick R. Huntington Ship Plan Inventory
Included are approximately 70 lines, construction and sail plans (the majority being blueprints). Some drawn by Huntington and some drawn by other naval architects, either who he was working wither who he was interested in or admired.