March 3, 1962 – John Gale Alden passed on this day in Florida at the age of 78. It was Saturday, the US president was John F. Kennedy, people were listening to Duke Of Earl by Duke Of Earl (Gene Chandler), and in the UK, The Young Ones by Cliff Richard was in the top 5 hits.
His designs are admired not only for their grace and elegance but for their stability and for the fact that they can, generally, be sailed single-handedly if necessary. Upon his passing, all of Alden’s designs were donated by his company to MIT’s Hart Nautical Collections.
“I was very much in love with a vessel that sails on her bottom, not on her beam ends.”
Alden, John Gale – 2013 Hall of Fame inductee – “Play the word association game with any group of seasoned sailors and if “schooner” comes up, chances are the response will be “John Alden.” Taking his cue from the deeper hulls and finer lines of the swift Gloucester fishing schooners designed by the famed B.B. Crowninshield, with whom Alden had apprenticed, the smaller yacht versions Alden designed were things of beauty. He added a spoon bow of his own with high sheer forward and generous freeboard, making his “fisherman-type” schooners dry and comfortable for cruising. With the deepest part of the sheer occurring quite far aft, and with the graceful upturn of the stern and its moderate overhang, Aldens are distinctive for their pleasing visual harmony.”
Sources
National Sailing Hall of Fame – NSHOF
* Noteworthy
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1859 – The two-day Great Slave Auction, the largest such auction in United States history, concludes.
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1885 – The American Telephone & Telegraph Company is incorporated in New York.
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1913 – Thousands of women march in a suffrage parade in Washington, D.C.
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1923 – TIME magazine is published for the first time.
1931 – The United States adopts The Star-Spangled Banner as its national anthem.
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