Willet

History and family connection

• [RECORD] The Jersey City News entry list states: “Class 10, open catboats (17 feet and under)—M. S. Leahy’s Willet, J. Spavin’s Gala Water, C. J. Stone’s Eleanor, H. H. Stilling’s Bath, W. F. Porter’s Harry C.” Library of Congress (external address omitted for offline reading)

• [INFERENCE] The exact initials and maritime context support identification of M. S. Leahy with Matthew S. Leahey, independently documented as a Bayonne boat owner, ship carpenter and caulker. The record proves ownership and entry; it does not prove that Matthew personally sailed Willet.

• [RECORD] The class description fixes the boat’s maximum length at seventeen feet and calls it an open catboat.

• [INFERENCE] Willet was a small pleasure boat, not one of Matthew’s later commercial coal barges. No image of this small boat is known, and no substitute image is used here.

Sources

Sources and credits are recorded in the factsheet above.