Nathanael G. Herreshoff was the greatest yacht designer and builder this country has ever produced. Captain Nat Herreshoff is credited with the introduction of more new devices in the design of boats than any other man, and the great yachts that he designed for the successful defense of the America's Cup caught the imagination of the world. The period of his greatest activity from 1890 - 1920 was known as "the Herreshoff Era," so greatly did his personality and the yachts he designed dominate the sport. He was a man of manifold talents and unusual genius and his career makes one of the most fascinating biographies. Many of the closely guarded secrets of Captain Nat, the great master, are revealed in these pages which teem with human interest, philosophy and the accumulated wisdom of a long lived genius.