History of the “Torpedo Stern”

Real photograph

Today, we’re taking a slight deviation from the norm. We’re looking at a very specific design aspect of the steamboat Minnehaha & similar vessels. I regularly get questions like this posed to me: “Why does Minnehaha have such an oddly shaped rear end?” or, "Why does Minnehaha's hull look like that?"

You might be surprised to learn the history behind this design choice!

Minnehaha & her six sisters shared a design that’s commonly known as a “Torpedo Stern” or “Washboiler Stern”. This is where the stern of the ship is designed to sloop down toward the waterline in a reverse bow like shape. The concept of this stern was used in a wide range of vessels around the United States. Most notably, this design appeared on lobster fishing boats off the East coast. This design gained prevalence along side the “overhang stern” which is seen on many late Victorian & Edwardian era ocean liners like Titanic. It came before the widespread popularization of “square sterns” which we see today in most cruise ships and almost all modern private watercraft. Think any stern on Royal Caribbean, or the back of a boat you’ve recently ridden. This relatively flat stern is a variation on the square stern design.

Minnehaha’s torpedo stern design was pleasant on the eyes while also serving to greatly reduce her wake. However, this design proved to have issues. . . As time went on, it was evident that the torpedo stern handled poorly under ever increasing horsepower. Not only that, but it also had weak points where the framing met then chine (rearmost point) of the boat. With increased speed, this caused ships to leak and, therefore, required time consuming repairs.

By the mid 1940’s, the torpedo stern was no longer offered by most boatbuilders. The better, albeit less exciting, design was the square stern that can be seen on modern boats. Especially on wood hulled boats like Chris-Craft and Skiff Craft.

Minnehaha serves as a wonderfully preserved remnant of a time where incorporating a torpedo stern was the ideal design to make a ship look both elegant and modern. A design which is scarcely employed in the 21st century.