Thanks to a very generous donor, The Herreshoff Marine Museum is in possession of Vapor, a 1902 steam launch, originally commissioned in 1902 by tycoon Henry Clay Pierce to serve as a tender to his steam yacht Yacona.

A total of 30 vessels in various sizes of this same model were built between 1898 and 1910 by Herreshoff Manufacturing Co.; Vapor, identified as #227, is 30′ overall and 29’9″ on the waterline with a 6′ beam and 1’10” draft. She was donated to HMM by Carol Martin, wife of the late Jon Martin, who had inherited the boat from his father. The Martin family, of Costa Mesa, California, owned the vessel for 72 years.

According to HMM curator Evelyn Ansel, Mr. Martin had extensively restored Vapor before his death a couple of years ago, and the power plant (including the engine and boiler) remains disassembled.

“It came to us as the hull by itself and the engine and boiler in a couple pallets of parts, so there's going to be a process of getting it back together for display,” she said.

The boiler itself has been replaced at least twice, which is very common for boilers for steam engines as it’s the thing that wears out the fastest — and Martin was still running Vapor as a steam-powered vessel.

According to Ansel, the preservation plan for Vapor is yet to be determined. That’s something that will be decided by a committee that includes professionals in the museum, boat building, and restoration industry, that have dealt with a lot of Herreshoff yachts specifically.

“We have a boat preservation committee meeting coming up,” she said. “And at that point we'll decide to what extent everything will be reassembled…there's a process, and we're very thoughtful about how we are going to handle it.”

Though HMM was aware that Vapor was out there on the west coast, they had not reached out to Martin’s family about their plans for the vessel, so it was a happy surprise when the family got in touch.

“It’s a big deal when something like this shows up,” Ansel said. “As far as we know this is the last steam launch that still exists. It was an earlier era of their production; they built steamboats really early on, from the 1860s past the turn of the century into the early 1910s, which was kind of late for steam production. Herreshoff stuck with it longer than most other folks did.”

Further, there are none that HMM knows of that have not been restored, or substantially rebuilt — it’s the nature of the game when you are using a wooden boat on the water.

“It’s pretty unusual that we find something that is 100% original and in those cases we do everything we can to preserve that condition because there's a lot to be learned from that original material,” said Ansel. “I also think it's wonderful to have restored exhibit pieces that look beautiful and give you a sense of what they looked like when they were brand new…our collection encompasses the full range of both.”

Vapor’s actual engine is called a steeple engine; the cylinders are actually stacked on top on each other as opposed to being strung in a line, which means the engine takes up less horizontal space, which was important in a relatively small launch. “This was really revolutionary in its day: really small and light and efficient and compact,” said Ansel. In fact, Vapor’s was an example of this type of engine, designed by Captain Nat. Herreshoff Manufacturing Co. built at least 27 of them beginning in 1898.

The acquisition of Vapor means that HMM now has seven marine steam engines — the largest collection in the world.