Herbert Mason Sears (1867-1942) was a noted yachtsman and businessman in Boston, Massachusetts. He was awarded the Croix de Guerre for his contributions during World War I.
He was born into a prominent New England family, a Mayflower descendant of the Sawyer family line. He was the son of Fredrick Sears and Albertina (Shelton) Sears, and grandson of David Sears, the developer of Longwood. [1] His twin brother was sculptor Phillip Sears and his older brother was professional tennis player Richard Sears. [2]
He married Caroline Bartlett (1870-1908) in 1891, and had two daughters with her, Elizabeth (1892-1969) and Phyllis (1895-1964). Sears became widowed in 1908 after his wife Caroline would tragically take her life at the St. Regis Hotel in New York City. His daughter Phyllis would go on to marry Bayard Tuckerman Jr., [3] a horseman and one of the founders of Suffolk Downs racetrack in East Boston. [4] His grandson was politician Herbert Sears Tuckerman.
After graduating from Harvard, he was a partner at the stockbrokers Curtis & Motley, and later would be president of Fifty Associates, vice president of Suffolk Savings Bank, and a director of the New England Trust Company and Boston and Albany Railroad. [2]
When the United States entered the war, Sears as Commodore of the Eastern Yacht Club, called the Under Secretary of the Navy, Franklin Roosevelt, and offered the use of the Eastern clubhouse in Marblehead to the Navy as a base. Roosevelt accepted and the clubhouse was used as a training station for the first year of World War I, primarily for training ashore and aviation training. [5]
Sears, along with other members of the Eastern Yacht Club, sponsored and privately financed the construction of Navy patrol boats for the war effort known as "The Eastern Yacht Club 62 footers". The boats were designed by Albert Loring Swasey and Nathanael Greene Herreshoff, with the Sears-sponsored boat named the USS Commodore (SP-1425). [6]
In 1917, at the age of 50, he would volunteer and spend eight months at the front in France near Dixmude, serving as part of the American Red Cross. For his efforts he would receive the Croix de Guerre and the medal of Reconnaissance Francaise. [7] After returning from France, his wrote of his experience in the book Journal of a Canteen Worker: A Record of Service with the American Red Cross. [8]
Herbert Sears was an avid yachtsman and commodore of the Eastern Yacht Club in Marblehead, Massachusetts from 1914 to 1923, and continued to be a life-long prominent member. [9] He owned the steam yacht Augusta, [10] and had the sloop Alert built in 1902, which was designed by Nathaniel Herreshoff. [11]
Sears' pride however, would be the schooner yacht Constellation , [12] designed by Edward Burgess and originally built for E.D. Morgan. [13] He purchased it in 1914, and as commodore of the Eastern Yacht Club, the Constellation would serve as the flagship, leading the fleet in all club races and regattas, and known as the "Queen of the Eastern".
Sears was painted in 1924 by John Singer Sargent in the painting "On the Deck of the Yacht Constellation". [14] In 1921, Sears created the "Sears Cup", bearing his name, for competition among juniors of Massachusetts yacht clubs. [15]
The Constellation was eventually taken out of service and scrapped, with the metal donated for the overseas war effort in September 1941.
Name | Built | Type | Yard | Designer | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Augusta | 1887 | Steam Yacht | Herreshoff, Bristol, RI [16] | Nathaniel Herreshoff | Built for: J. B. Herreshoff |
Hazard | 1897 | Gaff Sloop | Herreshoff Company Bristol, RI [17] | Nathaniel Herreshoff | Built for Herbert Sears |
Alert | 1902 | Sloop | Herreshoff Company Bristol, RI [11] | Nathaniel Herreshoff | Built for Herbert Sears |
Joker | 1903 | Sloop Dbl Rig | Herreshoff Company Bristol, RI [18] | Nathaniel Herreshoff | Built for Herbert Sears |
Skidoo | 1906 | Gaff Sloop | Herreshoff Company Bristol, RI [19] | Nathaniel Herreshoff | Built for Herbert Sears |
Constellation | 1889 | Schooner | Piepgras Shipyard, City Island, NY [13] | Edward Burgess | Purchased in 1914 |
Stella II | 1926 | S-Class Marblehead | Herreshoff Company Bristol, RI [20] | Nathaniel Herreshoff | Built for Herbert Sears |
Herbert Sears' primary Boston residence was on 287 Commonwealth Ave., designed by the architecture firm Rotch and Tilden. [21] [22] He had it constructed for him and his wife Caroline in 1892, and he would continue to live there until his death in 1942. [2] He also had an estate named "Woodrock" [23] in Beverly, Massachusetts at 400 Hale Street, Prides Crossing. It is now part of Endicott College and is named Reynolds Hall. [24]
The New York Yacht Club (NYYC) is a private social club and yacht club based in New York City and Newport, Rhode Island. It was founded in 1844 by nine prominent sportsmen. The members have contributed to the sport of yachting and yacht design. As of 2001, the organization was reported to have about 3,000 members. Membership in the club is by invitation only. Its officers include a commodore, vice-commodore, rear-commodore, secretary and treasurer.
The second USS Commodore (SP-1425) was an armed motorboat that served in the United States Navy as a patrol vessel from 1917 to 1919. It was financed by Herbert M. Sears as part of the "Eastern Yacht Club 62 footers".
USS Apache (SP-729) was the first to be delivered of eight motor boats built by Herreshoff Manufacturing Company at Bristol, Rhode Island ordered and financed by members of the Eastern Yacht Club of Marblehead, Massachusetts. The boats were designed by Albert Loring Swasey and Nathanael Greene Herreshoff with the intention that the boats be used by the Navy as patrol craft and built with Navy approval of the design. Apache, as were the other boats, bore names under construction chosen by the owners and were then given the Section Patrol numbers on Navy acceptance and activation. The names were dropped after a period and all the boats then bore only the S.P. numbers.
Emil "Bus" Mosbacher Jr. was a two-time America's Cup-winning yachtsman, the founding chairman of Operation Sail, and Chief of Protocol of the United States during the administration of President Richard Nixon.
Caldwell Hart Colt was an American inventor and yachtsman.
Herbert Sears Tuckerman was an American politician who served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives and the Massachusetts Senate.
Bayard Tuckerman Jr. was an American jockey, businessman, and politician.
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Constellation was the largest steel schooner when completed, having been designed by the yacht designer Edward Burgess and launched in 1889. She was built at the Piepgras Shipyard on City Island in the Town of Pelham on Long Island, New York. It was built for yachtsman Edwin D. Morgan III, who was a commodore of the New York Yacht Club, and grandson of New York Governor and state senator Edwin D. Morgan. The vessel remained in service on the United States East Coast at Marblehead, Massachusetts, until 1941 when the schooner was taken out of service and scrapped for its metal to aid the war effort.
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The Eastern Yacht Club is located in Marblehead, Massachusetts and founded in 1870. It is one of the oldest yacht clubs on the east coast with significant involvement in the history of American yachting.
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