Gerhard Gilgenast: Curiosity Can Be Contagious

One of the best parts about my writing life is learning more about personalities that intrigue me, even if what I dig up will never make it into an actual book or article. I could regale you with various fictional characters I’ve edited off Cooperation Island… but instead I’m going to share a recent deep dive into an actual human: someone who played a long-forgotten but key role in building the yacht that would become Hound.

I first came to know this man through what maritime historian Maynard Bray calls the “smoking letters:” two years of transatlantic correspondence between designer, owner, and builder. As the first chapter of The Heart of Hound says, the letters “reveal how the project, complicated by both twentieth-century communication delays and an endless quest for perfection, might have never made it to any starting line at all.”

One Notable Name

The “smoking”-est letters and cables, those threatening work stoppages and launching delay, were all signed by someone named “Gilgenast” at Abeking & Rasmussen (A&R). the German builder. An online search for a first name or title led nowhere—and his bit part in Hound’s history couldn’t justify even that much curiosity. 

it wasn’t until an equally curious colleague found a listing in the Encyclopedia of Yacht Designers that I learned his first name: Gerhard. Intrigued, I tracked down a local copy of the Encyclopedia—and discovered that Herr Gilgenast worked at two US shipyards that would both play a large part in Hound’s early history. More significantly, the guy was not just a disgruntled draftsman; he was an internationally respected yacht designer who first developed his skills in a few equally well-respected US design offices. (If you’re curious now too, here’s more detail.)

Lessons Learned

This ridiculously delicious rabbit-hole was an excellent reminder that online research definitely has its limits. And discovering The Encyclopedia of Yacht Designers—a rich source of information that I didn’t know existed—also motivates me to keep producing carefully researched books. Unlike websites, they will serve “forever” as a frozen time capsule of historic detail; even after they go out of style, and even if they fail to attract a suitably impressive number of eyeballs.

There’s also the simple joy of following my curiosity. Not every detail has to make it into an actual book or article; it can be enough all on its own, especially when it brings others joy as well. What about you—has your curiosity ever proved contagious? Share your thoughts in the comments below, or send me an email. I read every single one, with gratitude.

Thanks for being here!

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