RUSSELL, Henry Grinnell.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Log of the Yacht Harbinger, 1886-1894. Detailed logs of the Harbinger, a 76-foot schooner yacht, owned by Henry Grinnell Russell, scion of a long-established New Bedford commercial family. They document eight years of the cruises, races, and social events that marked the summer season for the East Coast beau monde. Additionally, every yacht, owner, captain, or builder of note of the era is mentioned in these pages. The Harbinger was designed by J. Cary Smith and built in 1884 by G. Lawley and Son, of Neponset, Mass., for the railroad magnate John Murray Forbes. In 1886 she was purchased by Henry Grinnell Russell and home-ported in East Greenwich, Rhode Island. The Rhode Island Pendulum reported that when she tied up at her summer moorings there in 1894, "her arrival was announced by a rousing cheer". Each summer she made the round of ports and watering holes along the New England coast and Long Island Sound, took part in the cruise of the New York Yacht Club, and joined the spectator fleet for the Goelet Cup races. In 1886 she was present for America's Cup races, the detailed account of which covers some 10 pages of the log, and although designed and appointed for luxury cruising, the Harbinger even had a race or two herself.Russell (1829-1904) was based in New York from 1856 to 1864, and there engaged in business as a commission merchant. After marrying Hope Brown Ives in 1864, he moved to Providence, Rhode Island. "For a short time, he had an office in the Franklin Building

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