Crowninshield grew up surrounded by ships, sailboats and yacht racing. His family had a long history on the seas and were some of the most well known of Boston sailing society. His uncle, Jacob Crowninshield, was captain of the ship America and is credited with landing the first elephant ever to set foot on American soil. It was said they bought the elephant for four hundred fifty dollars and sold it for ten thousand.

Jacob was offered the post of Secretary of the Navy. Never taking office due to bad health he remained a congressman until his death in 1808. B.B. Crowninshield's father, Benjamin W. Crowninshield became Secretary of the Navy in 1815.

Seawater was in his blood. Small wonder then, that after his brief stint in the west, on dry land selling real estate he was drawn back to the east and his beloved boats.

His boat designing career started out as a draftsman at John R. Purdon, a well known designer of knockabout class of sailboats. A year and one half later he set up his own design shop and started designing small racing daysailers. These small yachts would bring him fame as a designer so much so that he was asked to design the Americas' cup contender INDEPENDENCE in 1901.

Crowninshield might have overreached himself a bit here. Independence was radical for a racing boat, drawing heavily on Crowninshield's experience at small boat design. Independence was built by George Lawley and launched in May of 1901, just two years before the Witchcraft II. The design was so bad that Lawson (the owner) had her dismantled just six months later. That boat continued to cause him no end of trouble even after her demise. (see sidebar)

And then there was the Thomas W. Lawson, the largest pure sailboat ever built (no engine ) She was launched in July of 1902 and was 395 feet in length, had seven masts 193 ft tall and carried 43,000 sq. feet of canvas. She ended up as an oil tanker. Built of steel and with a water ballast of 1000 tons she was an advanced attempt to keep sail in the forefront of shipping. Even to dare to design something like this in 1902 gives us a look into Crowninshield's personality, he was not afraid to take chances and hang his reputation out for all to see.


While the Independence may have been a bit off the wall his designs for small daysailers and small yachts such as Witchcraft were unmatched. His knockabouts and other designs like Fame won races and soothed the senses with their designs that to this day exemplify what a sailing yacht should look like and sail like.

This was the man William B. Rogers selected to design Witchcraft II. It might have been because Crowninshield was related to William B Rogers. William B. Rogers' father was William Crowninshield Rogers, noted sea captain, his mother was B.B.s cousin. For what ever the reason he was chosen, Witchcraft remains a a testimony to Crownshield's ability to put fine art on the water.



It would seem that Crowninshield had a better understanding of ship design than of women. On May 12 1901 B.B. got married. This wouldn't seem strange at all, many folks get married except that the New York Times reported it as "Boston Yacht Designer Secretly Wedded Much to the Surprise of Friends." The closing sentence of the article is "Among those who would naturally know, there is a mysterious silence concerning the identity of the bride." The Times reported her name to be one Miss Emma Brown of Boston..." whom no one in his circle of friends had ever heard of". That might be because the Times got the name of the bride completely wrong. She was Priscilla Janet MacPhail.

In Aug of 1902 Crowninshield was fined 20 dollars for using his fists on one Adolphus G. McVey, the yachting editor of The Boston Herald. It seems that McVey made some disparaging remarks about Crowninshield's designs for Independence and there was bad blood between them. McVey happened to be on a boat dock as Crowninshield's motor launch approached. Crowninshield's wife said something along the lines of "there's that wretch now; why don't you go up and throw him overboard." to which McVey replied with the remark "you ought to have thrown her over board when you met her first." Needless to say this did not set well with Crowninshield and he proceeded to climb up and soundly trounce McVey. While the aforementioned trouncing was occurring, Mrs. Crowninshield was heard to loudly proclaim "Kill the wretch". The other folks on the dock came to McVey's defense and Crowninshield was forced to withdraw to his launch and leave. After Crowninshield was fined the twenty dollars, McVey sued him for ten thousand dollars, a princely sum in those days. The New York Times then gave this report of Crowninshield's reply to the problems with McVey. "I wish to state I had no argument whatsoever with A. G. McVey, as I consider my time too valuable to argue with a man of his caliber. He showed a desire to throw me overboard, which I cordially invited him to do, but instead of accepting my invitation he grossly insulted my wife, which I resented. But I didn't take him unawares, as I had to climb a ladder and walk ten feet before getting to him. Furthermore, he saw me coming and picked up a heavy stick with which he struck me before I reached him . "He richly deserved all he got at my hands, and I hope he has learned a lesson." The suit was settled in 1911 in McVey's favor for four hundred and forty eight dollars. This was not the end of Crowninshield's troubles however. It seems that his wife decided to go shopping in Boston in 1915 with out telling her husband and took a room under an assumed name. She was found in the Parker house Hotel dead in a tub of hot water. The New York Times reported that the Medical Examiner, George B. McGrath (a Harvard class mate of Crowninshield's) stated "that apparently Mrs. Crowninshield fainted as she stepped into the bathtub, the water of which was very hot. The death, he was certain, from his investigation, was neither suicidal nor homicidal." Interestingly he did not make his report until conferring with Crowninshield.