John Brown Herreshoff

John Brown "J.B." Herreshoff (April 24, 1841 – July 20, 1915) was an American boat builder and businessman. He, along with his younger brother, Nathanael "Nat" Greene Herreshoff, founded Herreshoff Manufacturing Company.

Biography John Brown Herreshoff was the son of Charles Frederick Herreshoff and Julia Ann Lewis. He was born on April 24, 1841, in Bristol, Rhode Island, at Point Pleasant Farm on Poppasquash Neck. He was the fourth of nine children and the third of seven sons.

J.B. took an interest in boats immediately. When he was young, he would whittle out toy ships with a knife. He built his first seaworthy boat, Meteor, when he was fifteen. As a boy, he demonstrated his ingenuity in other ways as well. By the time he was thirteen, he had created a rope walk where he made and sold ropes. Not much later, he set up a machine shop with many tools, including a lathe, which he used to shape wood.

When John Brown Herreshoff was seven years old, he lost sight in one eye due to an illness. He went blind in the other eye when he was fifteen, after an accident in a game he had been playing with his brother Charles. Although this had a heavy impact on his life and his capabilities, it did not stop him from pursuing a career in crafting ships, and he earned the nickname "the blind boat builder".

John Brown Herreshoff died on July 20, 1915. The two of them worked well together. When constructing sailboats, J.B. would come up with the design of a ship and describe it verbally to Nat. Nat would then build a model for J.B. to feel, and by doing this, John was able to find any imperfections that there might have been and have them changed. As the company continued to grow, J.B. handed most of the designing and construction work over to Nat and took up managing all the business aspects of the company instead. The Herreshoff brothers also built five America's Cup defenders: Vigilant, Defender, Columbia, Reliance, and Resolute.

The site of the Herreshoff Marine Museum is where the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company was. Some buildings are still used for boat construction and restoration. Others are used for teaching boat building and sailing classes.

Notable vessels

Steam vessels

Lightning—the U.S. Navy's first purpose-built torpedo boat—1876. Stiletto, 1885

Sailing vessels

Herreshoff Manufacturing Company created hundreds of their own sailing vessel designs. Among those designs, they invented quite a few one-design classes of sailboats. This includes:

Vigilant, 1893 Defender, 1895 Columbia, 1899 & 1901 Reliance, 1903 Resolute, 1920