Shelter Island Yacht Club - A Centennial History

The Shelter Island Yacht Club

A Centennial History

1886-1986
A book written in 1986 to commemorate
the 100th anniversary of the founding of the club.

Chapter 2 - The Club Takes Shape

Previous historical booklets incorrectly state that the Yacht Club's "formation" occurred on the evening of August 15, 1886 when "six good men and true" gathered at 8:15 in the office of the Shelter Island Heights Association.

The Association's office, incidentally, was located in a large frame building which occupied a part of what is now the North Ferry carpark. For the ensuing six years the same office was to be the scene of many more trustee meetings. Furthermore, the first boat races were run from its second floor balcony.

The Prospect Pavilion, as the edifice was called, was a hub of the resort's daytime activity. An advertisement in the short-lived Shelter Island Tribune for July 1892 states that the establishment not only carried a complete stock of "confections, stationery and toys" but also dispenses" soda water and all kinds of summer drinks". It encompassed an "ice cream saloon and restaurant", "four ten pin alleys", billiards and pool, a barber shop manned by "tonsorial artists", even the availability of "hot and cold baths".

It is saddening to think that this picturesque emporium was later moved to the rear of the Beach House to serve as "help quarters" for Association employees and still later . . . razed.

The Initiative

As for the precise date and hour of "formation", August 14 is actually the day on which the original trustees held their first official meeting, in other words, the day on which the Club came alive as a legal entity.

The charter was formally signed by the six founders and properly notarized as early as July 3, 1886. It was filed and recorded with the Secretary of State of New York on August 2, whereupon a Certificate of Incorporation was granted on August 3, 1886. That charter lays down three aims: "The particular business and object of this club is to encourage Yacht building and naval architecture, social recreation in yachting and the cultivation of naval science."

Regardless of the professed interest in naval science and architecture, the minutes of the first meeting disclose that major emphasis lay on social recreation, specifically on regattas and sailing races. Such regattas were already a familiar form of summer entertainment but the Club was meant to provide a more formal framework for them. Considerable argument ensued as to whether these events should be called regattas or simply races. Eventually, the term race prevailed and the term regatta was reserved for more elaborate events, probably in deference to a tradition derived from the Royal Yacht Club at Cowes.

A week later, at their second meeting, the trustees abruptly decided to hold the initial regatta "next Thursday". After all, the summer was almost over. There were, as we shall see in the next chapter, other possible reasons for the delay. No entry fees would be charged but "appropriate prizes" would be offered, namely, pennants for the larger classes of entrants and modest cash awards for the smaller ones.

Attention must be diverted at this point to a glaring omission in the minutes of the Heights Association. During this entire period, despite the use of a common office, there is not the slightest reference to the development of a yacht club. Strange, isn't it? Evidently the new enterprise was regarded as the private initiative of a small group of individuals. No sponsorship of any kind was sought or offered. Not even a kind word!

The names of the six founding fathers who appeared on July 3 before William B. Hill, notary public of Kings County, N. Y., were:

J. C. Hoagland H. H. Hogins W. B. Hill (Notary) Daniel P. Hathaway J. A. Aspinwall G. L. Haight

Now observe the names of those who were present at the August 14 meeting. Four of them are the same: J. C. Hoagland D. P. Hathaway J. B. Keep Rev. J. A. Aspinwall William B. Hill A. H. Porter.

With the exception of the first commodore, exactly the same two lists furnish all but one of the flag officers elected to serve for the following season, namely, Vice Commodore J. B. Keep, Rear Commodore G. L. Haight, Secretary and Treasurer Wm. B. Hill, and Measurer A. H. Porter, Jr.

The first commodore, however, was John Noble Stearns, Jr., a New York City silk manufacturer, who had recently set out to build the "largest private home" on the Island at Jennings Point which soon came to be called Stearns Point. It is now Camp Quinipet. Stearns had inherited his business from his father who, as a young man, had gone to China in the silk trade. Two of John Jr.'s brothers also were among the early members of the Club, one of them already in August 1886.

The First Boats

Thus the names of the first trustees and flag officers as well as several of the other charter members are recorded, but there is no further information about them in the Club records. That, as in the case of Stearns, must be sought elsewhere. The charter specified that "the number of Trustees, Directors or Managers" shall be eleven. In addition to the six who signed the document, the other five persons named in the charter to serve as Trustees are: J. N. Stearns, George B. Abbott, C. N. Hoagland (brother of J. C.), A. H. Porter, Jr., and John Basset Keep.

Surviving yearbooks, beginning in 1892-3, list yachts along with their owners but at the time the Club was formed the only boats mentioned are Stearns' 31 foot catboat Minnie Rogers and Hoagland's 132 foot steam yacht Lagonda. It is instructive to note, however, that according to the 1892-3 listing, J. A. Aspinwall had two steam yachts, the 48 foot Secret and the 79 foot Thyra. H. H. Hagins had a 65 foot schooner Fearless as well as a 50 foot sloop Enterprise. Stearns now had, in addition to the Minnie Rogers, the 31 foot Elsket soon to be replaced by the 41 foot sloop Consternation. Keep had the 22 foot cat Apajune and Hoagland the 187 foot steamer Stranger, the biggest of all. Surely some of those boats and others like them were already on hand in 1886.

The key leader in the launching of the Club seems to have been J. C. Hoagland whose splendid Lagonda* was the judge's boat for the inaugural regatta. One year earlier this brand-new steamer functioned as flagship for the squadron which proudly escorted the French steamer Isere from Sandy Hook into New York harbor. Why? The Isere was laden with 220 tons of metal that, when pieced together, would become the Statue of Liberty! Unfortunately, Hoagland on that occasion was not flying the S.I.Y.C. colors, which had not even been chosen. Moreover, as vice commodore of the American Yacht Club, he was leading a parade of ten handsome American Yacht Club vessels, including Jay Gould's famous Atalanta whose 287 feet overshadowed the Isere herself.

* Years later the Lagonda was acquired by the Rev. W. L. Moore who, in the late 1890's, bought the Roosevelt cottage adjoining the Manhanset House. That cottage now razed - was eventually sold to Gottfried Piel, Brooklyn brewer, who also owned a shipyard in Greenport.

Although the Heights Association made no direct reference to the germinating yacht club, indirect acknowledgement of the presence of pleasure boats off its shores is contained in a decision to charge a fee of one dollar for each "stake" planted in adjacent harbor waters. Thus, it may be assumed that, even in the 1880's, boats abounded. The 1886 regatta was divided into six classes: sloops over 33 feet, sloops under 33 feet, and four categories of cat boats ranging from 18 to 28 feet. Exactly how many boats there were is not known.

Early Yachts, Yacht Clubs and Shipyards

It should be noted that yachting in the latter half of the 19th century was an increasingly popular - indeed passionate - pastime all along the Atlantic seaboard and even on inland waters. Dering Harbor was, of course, an ideal spot for all forms of water activity. The very first American yacht - from jacht schip or hunting ship - were utilitarian vessels of Dutch origin built in New Amsterdam about 1613 by Adrian Block for whom Block Island is named. They were designed to be small, light, fast and utilitarian.

Early in the 1800's, however, these jacht schips were turned to more recreational usage*, reputedly by Capt. Charles Corwin Shield of Salem, Massachusetts, who in 1801 outfitted a "pleasure boat", the Jefferson, and followed it in 1816 with his luxuriously equipped Cleopatra's Barge, the first private yacht to cross the Atlantic. American tycoons soon appropriated the name for their ostentatiously bigger and fancier vessels furnished with steam boilers. Sails became superfluous. The era that cutely referred to its seaside palaces as cottages ascribed the modest name "yacht" to its floating palaces. Next step: clubs.

* The Holland Dutch had apparently discovered the more sophisticated uses of yachts much earlier.

The prestigious New York Yacht Club, founded in 1844, played a rather lonesome role until the Brooklyn Yacht Club came along ten years later. Twelve years after that some dissatisfied B.Y.C. members split off to found "more of a yacht club" which would be "selective" and maintain "higher standards of seamanship". This became the Atlantic Yacht Club at Seagate. Both clubs are long since defunct ~ut both contributed members to the S.I.Y.C., for example, G. L. Haight, one of the first commodores of the B.Y.C., and. from the A.Y.C. a much longer list, including Rogers Maxwell, J. A. Aspinwall, J. C. Hoagland, L. A. Fish, James Weir. Jr., and H. H. Hogins. These men did not leave those clubs; it was common practice for ardent yachtsmen to join four or five clubs for the sake of a full summer of racing and cruising.

In addition to the amateur passion for yachting there were other good reasons for holding membership in four or five clubs. In the case of John B. Herreshoff who with his blind brother Nathaniel, dominated America's boat building for nearly forty years, membership was just good business. He joined the S.I.Y.C. in 1890, listing two steam yachts alongside his name, the 75 foot Eugenia and the 73 foot Katrina. For ten years in the 1880's the famous

Herreshoff shipyard in Bristol, Rhode Island built steamers almost exclusively before returning to the production of magnificent racing and sailing boats, including the America's Cup defenders. Although the Herreshoffs never lived on the Island, John B. retained Club membership at least until 1909, still listing a Eugenia, but at 113 feet overall.

Two other brothers - Pliny C. and Theodore W. Brigham, shipbuilders of Greenport - may have had mixed motives in associating with the S.I.Y.C. but, unlike the Herreshoffs, they participated fully and personally in Club activities. Pliny had joined in 1887, the year after the Oub was founded, Theodore three years later. Pliny served as secretary in the 1890's and had a knack for promotion which he put to good use for the Yacht Club.

As late as 1945 Theodore - fifty-five years after joining - was elected Commodore. The two brothers owned and operated the Greenport Basin and Construction Co. under the slogan "striving for excellence". The three-acre yard with its long docks and marine railway, its spacious warehouses and strong derrick could accommodate boats drawing sixteen feet. They did much work for Harold Vanderbilt, among others, and during both world wars the yards busily manufactured gunboats and minesweepers.

Another predecessor of S.I.YC. was Boston's Eastern Yacht Club, founded in 1870. For several years L. A. Fish was a member there also. Seawanhaka followed in 1871, largely to underscore the importance of amateurCorinthian - sailing and we find J. N. Luning registered there as well as with the N.Y.Y.C. He built the house in Dering Harbor Village which James Heatherton - for whom the Heatherton Cup is named - later bought and transformed. Corinthian, incidentally, was a popular name for explicitly amateur clubs all across the country in a day when professional skippers were often employed to compete in races.

By 1880 the Larchmont Club was founded and here again we find the names of Rogers Maxwell, L. A. Fish, and three men who, as Shelter Islanders, were connected only with the N.Y.Y.C's Station No.5: Frank T. Robinson, Frank Anthony, and Tarrant Putnam. We will revert to that project in a moment. Both Robinson and Anthony served as station supervisors but evinced no interest in the new Club across the harbor. Rivalry perhaps? Only Putnam, who actually lived at the N.Y.Y.C., later joined the S.I.Y.C.

The American Yacht Club was established at Rye, New York in 1883, primarily to promote steam yachting which was regarded by some enthusiasts as the wave of the future. And, some say, to provide tycoon Jay Gouldblackballed by the N.Y.Y.C. - with a power base, no pun intended. He had started out to support the Atlantic Yacht Club but became unhappy when its clubhouse was located at Seagate instead of Bay Ridge. And he remained unhappy when the American Yacht Club did not choose Bay Ridge.

J. C. Hoagland and J. A. Aspinwall crop up again as belonging not only to the N.Y.Y.C. but as actively engaged in both the Atlantic and the American and, finally, in the S.I.Y.c. What interest they may have shown in the establishment of the Dering Harbor station of the N.Y.Y.C. is not known; apparently none at all.

Happy Landings

Nevertheless the N.Y.Y.C. may have contributed unwittingly to the proliferation of clubs both by its wide-ranging cruises and the establishment of way stations for the "comfort and convenience" of its members. The concept of such stations had been broached back in 1880. A committee, including Major Frank T. Robinson, was appointed and finally in 1892 "after much labor" seven stations were authorized, to which three more were eventually added.

The first three stations were located in and around New York City, primarily for the convenience of influential business men who liked to commute by boat to their offices in lower Manhattan. No.4 was set up in New London, No. S on Shelter Island, and No.6 at Newport. Each of the committee members seems to have pleaded successfully for placing a station where his summer home happened to be located!

The Shelter Island spot was warmly espoused because "there was deep water in the cove and room to anchor the fleet". The specifications for all stations were "to be of one story with two retiring rooms, one being for ladies". Also, a telephone “to the nearest hotel to call for carriages" and sleeping space for a "keeper". As in a lighthouse.

Much to the competitive gratification of the hotel management, the Dering Harbor clubhouse was built within 75 feet of the Manhanset boating and bathing dock, and within easy walking distance of the hotel. Also, it lay practically at Major Robinson's front door. Nineteen years later, after flames had completely devoured the huge hostelry, Station No.5 was sold and towed away to Sag Harbor where it became - and still is - the home base of the Sag Harbor Yacht Club. The history of the N.Y.Y.C. simply says it was" not in commission after 1913". The last station - at Glen Cove - expired in 1945.

No close bond can be said to exist between the N.Y.Y.C. and the foundation of the S.I.Y.c. unless one hazards the guess that Station No.5 may well have been set up with the connivance of Manhanset House and Major Robinson to counterbalance its rival on the Prospect side. However, there is good reason to seek a close link with both the American and the Atlantic Yacht Clubs, especially in the person of J. C. Hoagland who was actually commodore of the American Yacht Club at the time he became a founding member of the S.I.Y.c. and subsequently was listed as member No. 1. Experience garnered in the very recent organization of the American Yacht Club seems to have benefitted the slightly younger sister club on Shelter Island.

More Founders

Having examined some of the founding fathers of the Heights, let's look at a few of the Yacht Club's founding fathers also. They lived cheek by jowl.

First, Joseph Cristoffel Hoagland himself. His leading role in the establishment of the S.I.Y.c. in view of his deep interest in the American Steam Yacht Club, not to mention the Atlantic Yacht Club, would be difficult to explain were it not for the fact that he, together with his brother Cornelius, each had a cottage in the Heights. Like so many other early members, J. C. was a prominent citizen of Brooklyn and had a big estate in that city, landscaped incidentally by the famous Frederick Law Olmstead who laid out Manhattan's Central Park.

At the age of twenty-five, in association with his brother and a third partner, Hoagland founded the Royal Baking Powder Company. When the association was dissolved in anger, Dr. Cornelius Hoagland bought the Cleveland Baking Powder Company of Albany. After his brother's death, J. c. merged the two companies. At J. C.'s death in 1899 - he was only fifty-eight years old - the business was valued at $10 million. In short, J. C. Hoagland was well able to indulge his passionate interest in yachting. His last steam yacht Stranger was ranked among the finest of its day.

The Rev. John Abel Aspinwall was the scion of a distinguished mercantile and seafaring family. His father was reputed to be one of the wealthiest men in New York City. Among other achievements, the father had built the cross-isthmus Panama Railroad, fortuitously just before the California gold rush. Then he founded the Pacific Mail Steamship Company. The town of Colon was once named Aspinwall!

John himself figures somewhat elusively among Brooklyn's Episcopal clergymen being listed, without parish assignment, as "located in Bay Ridge 1864 - 1884". Apparently he was subject to intermittent spells of poor health. Later he launched and served St. Thomas Parish in Washington, D. C., but returned regularly to Shelter Island for his summer vacations. His 79 foot Thyra was famous. He is said to have held marine licenses as captain, navigator, and engineer.

Aspinwall is still remembered for bringing one of the first automobiles, if not the first, onto the Island to the consternation of many residents. His cottage stood along the waterfront between the North Ferry and the clubhouse which he was instrumental in building.

For twenty-nine years Aspinwall was a member of the S.I.Y.C. and in 1907 was elected to be the first Fleet Chaplain and thereafter preached at the annual Yacht Club service in Union Chapel until his death in 1913. The office of chaplain was created shortly after a former commodore, James Weir, Jr., died aboard his own boat during a regatta. Weir, by the way, was probably Brooklyn's foremost nurseryman with an impressive expanse of greenhouses adjacent to Greenwood Cemetery.

Some of the other men who were prominently involved in the Yacht Club's earliest days deserve mention. It hardly seems fair to preserve only the bare names of founders, does it?

Daniel P. Hathaway's presence among the charter members is no doubt attributed to his position as manager of the Prospect House. In other words, his main concern was to see that the hotel's best interests were well represented. The resort no doubt possessed a small fleet of sharpies, canoes, and even a launch, but D. P. Hathaway was never listed among the boat-owning members of the Club and he never became a flag officer. Managers of summer hotels were usually managers of winter hotels elsewhere. According to Duvall's History of Shelter Island, Hathaway had been the general manager of the Plant System of hotels on the west coast of Florida and in personal charge of the prestigious Tampa Bay Hotel.

J. Basset Keep was obviously the youngest of the Trustees. Only twenty years of age, he was not a signatory of the charter, perhaps for that reason. But the charter names him among the eleven "managers" and he was present at that first meeting on August 14, 1886. For many years thereafter he would diligently serve the Club, first as vice commodore, later as measurer, and for many years as chairman of the House Committee. Despite his youth at least one reporter (Brooklyn Eagle, July 24, 1892) bluntly attributes the actual construction of the clubhouse to Mr. Keep whose "enterprise and energy" rescued the project from dilatory "indifference".

In this instance, the son preceded his distinguished father who joined the Club in 1886, but not as a charter member. Dr. J. Lester Keep was a prominent homeopathic physician who had begun his medical studies at Yale but transferred to Hahnemann Medical College in Philadelphia. Upon graduating in 1860 he settled down in Brooklyn, where, except for a brief interlude as ship's surgeon aboard a transatlantic clipper, he practiced for over fifty years and 25 founded hospitals. The family came early to Shelter Isbnd and it was in their cottage Saravista that Dr. Keep died in the summer of 1916. For many years Dr. Keep alternated with Dr. George Little as Fleet Surgeon, and is still fondly remembered for the little wooden pillboxes he habitually distributed to small children. Basset Keep preceded his father in death but a brother, Ogden Avery Keep, who joined in 1905, kept the family interest alive in the S.I.Y.c., as did a brother-in-law, Charles Morse.

Next comes George B. Abbott, a justice of the State Supreme Court. When he died in February 1908 the pallbearers at the service in Brooklyn's Holy Trinity Episcopal Church were, with one exception, fellow judges. The exception was Latham A. Fish, a fellow yachtsman from the S.I.Y.C.

Latham Fish, a banker, died one year later at his summer home in East Marion across from Shelter Island where he had a private golf links. When he joined the Club in 1890 he was the proud owner of the famous Grayling. An 1891 news item in the New York Recorder characterized the Grayling as" a rule-of-thumb boat whittled out by Philip Elsworth" which proved its worth by twice winning the Goelet Cup for schooners. "Under a cloud of canvas, she is one of the prettiest sights a sailor ever saw. The cups she has won would fill a large safe. Mr. Fish is one of our most experienced amateur yacht sailors. The Grayling is now being fitted out at Greenport. Her owner spent nearly all his spare time in a particularly able catboat navigating the placid waters of Shelter Island Sound."

Finally, there is Henry H. Hogins, a broker and captain of the famed 23rd New York Regiment. An ardent yachtsman, he was one of the first commodores of the Atlantic Yacht Club in Brooklyn and, like Latham Fish, belonged to at least four other yacht clubs. He lived aboard his boat during the summer and died there, appropriately enough, in August 1916 after a long illness.

The identities of the other charter members - Hill, Haight, and Porter - remain cloaked in obscurity, but the foregoing sketches reveal the sort of men who "formed" the Shelter Island Club and obviously relished the pleasure it was designed to give them and all others who followed ... in boats.

Pictures following Chapter 2

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