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November 23, 1934
Mr. William Atkin,
Silvermine,
Norwalk, Connecticut

Dear Bill: 

A very good friend of ours, Dr. Leuman M. Waugh of 576 Fifth Avenue, New York City is going on a most interesting expedition next Spring into the sub-arctic regions of Alaska. His trip will take him into a section of the world which has never been traversed by a motor boat, at least in charge of a white man.

Dr. Waugh plans to have a boat built on the Pacific Coast, probably at Seattle and ship it by steamer into the arctic at a point where his cruise will begin. As there are only two ships a year sailing to these parts, it will be necessary for his boat to be shipped from Seattle on a steamer leaving about May 15, 1935. Dr. Waugh will not be able to leave New York until about a month alter and he will proceed from Seattle to some point in Alaska which can be reached by steamer at that time and make the rest of the journey by airplane to join his boat.

The waters on which Dr. Waugh will cruise will be quite protected, that is there will be very little sailing on the open Pacific. Most of his expeditions will be on inland waters, bays, rivers etc. Most of these waters will be very shallow and it will, therefore, be necessary for him to have a boat of not over 18 inches draft.

Dr. Waugh's plans will require him to be in the arctic for several years before his work is completed. Of course, he will return to New York for the winter season but return to his base the following Spring. I might mention that Dr. Waugh has done a great deal of cruising on the Atlantic side of Northern North America, in Labrador waters and in the vicinity of Greenland etc. No doubt you have heard of some of his work in connection with these cruises.

I might mention that he is far from the usual type of man, many of which come into this office every month with the idea of cruising around the world in a 15 footer. He is a scientist in every sense, a very able boatman, knows boats and how to handle them and in fact, knows what it's all about.

Now what MoToR BoatinG would like to do is to have you design a boat for Dr. Waugh which we can make a part of our monthly series of designs by yourself. I am sure such a design in MoToR BoatinG would prove most interesting to our many readers as we have many requests for designs of boats which more or less fill the requirements which Dr. Waugh has in mind.

On account of the conditions to be met in the sub-arctic and the fact that it will have to be shipped by steamer, the boat will have to be more or less small, some 24 or 26 feet in length, with the shallow draft requirement already mentioned. He has in mind using a Gifford-Wood stern drive and a 40 horse power Lycoming motor. As Dr. Waugh will be aboard his craft for months at a time, and absolutely out of touch with any other human all of the