Raceboat, Displacement
Name/Title
Raceboat, DisplacementEntry/Object ID
1972.025.1Description
1972.025.1 Moike Boat Type: Displacement Raceboat Builder: Charles L. Seabury & Company Model: Unknown Original Power: Unknown Current Power: None Length: 36' 9" Beam: 4' 2" Date Built: 1904-1908 On or around 1904 Frederick Bourne presented Moike to his daughter Marjorie on the occasion of her fourteenth birthday at Dark Island, one of the Bourne's summer homes. Frederick Gilbert Bourne (1851-1919) was Commodore of the New York Yacht Club at the time, and President of the Singer Sewing Machine Company. Marjorie was one of nine children he had with his wife Emily. In Moike, he chose a very up-to-date high-speed launch, a raceboat which was soon one of the fastest on the St. Lawrence River. She became a fixture of the many races in the Thousand Islands in the 1900s and 1910s, winning more than a few with Marjorie at the wheel. She was built by the Charles L. Seabury Company in Morris Heights, NY, soon to become the Consolidated Shipbuilding Corporation. Her exact build date is unknown, but her first known appearance in Yacht Club registers is in the Chippewa Bay Y.C. book from 1908. Her lines are those of the fastest known type of boat in the late '00s; a long, thin craft with a very sharp entry, a flattened section aft, and a V-transom, technically called a 'semi-displacement' launch. These boats were on the very edge of true hydro-planing technology, and would plane with enough horsepower. At the time, though, the concept of a planing hull was not fully understood. 50 years after Marjorie Bourne's 14th birthday party, in the mid 1960s, Bob Cox was motoring around the vicinity of Dark Island in Suwanee, and saw an older couple on the dock supervising a crew loading furniture into a boat. He drove by close to the dock, and the lady waved him in. She introduced herself as Marjorie Thayer, and said "I have a boat like that!" (referring to Suwanee). It was Marjorie Bourne. Bob knew about Moike, and asked if she had been cut up and made into an outboard or otherwise destroyed. Mrs. Thayer assured him that Moike was alive and well, and asked her husband, Dr. Thayer, to show Bob the boat in the boathouse. The two of them got into Suwanee and motored around to the Dark Island boathouse, where Moike was sitting safe and sound under a linen cover, on the same cradle she sits on today. She had no hardware or motor. Bob chatted with Dr. and Mrs. Thayer for a few minutes about possibly restoring the boat and Bob suggested they might think of the Museum. That winter Dr. and Mrs. Thayer both passed away, and one of their nephews, Frederick B. Hard, donated the boat and trophies to the then Thousand Islands Shipyard Museum soon afterwards. What Moike's original powerplant was is uncertain. Some ABM records indicate that it was a 38 hp 6-cylinder Smalley motor, with a 4 ½" by 4 ½" stroke which she shared with another boat in the Bourne fleet; those are the specifications that appear in the 1908 C.B.Y.C. yearbook. Other documents indicate that the boat had engine trouble and had changed motors once or twice before "sharing a motor with a workboat." Still another document indicates that Moike was repowered in 1911 with a 150 hp Speedway engine. Speedway motors were produced by the Charles L. Seabury Consolidated Shipbuilding Corporation, which built the boat, and it seems likely that Moike would originally have been powered by a Speedway. In 1904, though, motors of 150 hp were almost unheard of. It may be that Moike was originally powered by a smaller Speedway which was technically difficult to operate, and so was replaced by the Smalley within the first couple years of operation. Moike's construction is highly technical and very well done. She has an oak keel and a ladder-like structural spine which the engine-beds are incorporated into. The hull is carvel-planked in mahogany over many fairly thin frames with battens let into them where the plank seams occur. All of the frames are bent, though every 4th one is thicker and more substantial than the others. The planks are riveted to the frames, and small brass screws are sunk through the battens and into the planks from the inside to hold the plank seams tight. The boat is built with a very high-crown deck, canvas covered, with mahogany covering boards. It has a steam-bent mahogany coaming which follows the high deck crown; a very difficult piece to make and fit. Much of the original interior is missing, but it clearly had frame-and-panel seats. ABM records indicate that the boat had no hardware when received, and that various pieces were added over the years. All the hardware currently on the boat appears to be appropriate. The engine-hatch vents and stern flagpole socket are the same as those used on the "number boats" in 1909. Moike is in sound shape though incomplete, with no seats, steering wheel, or engine, and with only substitute hardware. Her hull has held up very well, especially considering that she has sat on a cradle much shorter than her length for most of the last century. EVS 08 Frederick Bourne was the president of the Singer Sewing Machine Company, Commodore of the New York Yacht Club and Commodore of the Thousand Islands Yacht Club. He was the owner of Dark Island where he built a magnificent castle known today as Singer Castle. He was one of the most distinguished of all American yachtsmen. For his daughter's fourteenth birthday, he decided to have a special boat constructed for her. On the very day of her fourteenth birthday he presented her with Moike. It was to be her special boat. Moike was designed long and narrow, which in 1904 was the accepted formula for achieving speed on the water. It was constructed with fine light ribs to achieve strength without excessive weight. Another one of the Museum's 1904 racing launches, George Boldt's PDQ is similar in construction and overall dimensions.Collection
BoatsAcquisition
Accession
1972.025Source or Donor
Hard, Frederick B.Made/Created
Manufacturer
Charles L. Seabury CompanyDate made
1904Place
Location
Morris Heights, NY, USANotes
Early Date: 1904 Propulsion: InboardOther Names and Numbers
Other Numbers
Number Type
Old NumberOther Number
605Dimensions
Length
36 ftDimension Notes
Width: 4.1666666667 ftLocation
Wall
WestRoom
Bay 3Building
*Don Doebler Collections Storage Facility*Don Doebler Collections Storage Facility
Bartlett Point Barn 1
*Cleveland E. Dodge Memorial Launch Building