About turn-of-the century naphtha yachts in Brooklyn:
The popular size open boats of the middle nineties were the 16 footers, costing $650, the 25 footers, costing $1,050, or the 30 footer for $1,600, cash strictly. You could buy various sizes of cabin cruisers, or
a 125 foot twin-screw beauty, with two 50 h.p. engines, 4 cylinders, using 25 quarts of naphtha an hour, for $22,000.
— MotorBoating, February 1934$22K in 1910 when the Peoples’ Pulpit “gifted” the Angel to Russell is about
$533,340 in 2016 dollars.
A few paragraphs up:
The first minister to own the new launch was the Rev. Frank Landon Humphries of Morristown, N.J., who ordered another innovation, a Daimler lighting plant installed in his 82 by 12 foot craft, run by two 24 h.p. engines, with twin screws.
What a wimpy vessel compared to Pastor Russells’! Interesting that they note a Christian minister. Was this a trend?
And a few paragraphs down:
These pioneer boat-owners were for the most part… men of comfortable means; as yet the sport belonged to the more opulent.
Gilded Age financiers like William Astor and industrialist Jay Gould are mentioned.