Page 67: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (October 2003)

Profile "In terms of design, my grandfather was very seat of the pants," Bruce says, "Even though I was less than eight years old when he died, I remember being told that his quick estimates were very soon confirmed correct by the calculations."

The self-taught Mandell Rosenblatt could sketch a vessel design from his mind, knowing all of the components of a vessel by using his basic common sense and experience. "He (Mandell) was a very 'practical' engineer," Bruce says. "He was the type of person that would — once knowing the principal characteristics of a vessel — could esti- mate, before doing the back up calcula- tions, such important information as the size of the propeller, the shaft, the rud- der stock, etc. "He saw aesthetics as 1A, it wasn't even number two."

Association Leads to Foundation

It was soon after the end of WWII, and because of discriminatory issues regard- ing their Jewish faith, both Mandell and his son, Lester, who by now had joined his father's vocation of ship design, were both out of a job. They turned to what has become their second family — The

Society of Naval Architects and Marine

Engineers (SNAME). It was at a New

York section meeting of the trade organ- ization where Mandell and Lester met a prior acquaintance, a man named Mr.

Blackstone, according to Bruce. "My grandfather said to Mr. Blackstone: 'What are you doing at the SNAME meeting?'" Bruce remembers. "And he (Blackstone) responded: 'I'm looking for a naval architect to design a ship that we want to have built.' Mandell responded quickly: "That's interesting; we're look- ing for someone that needs to have a ship designed."

The meeting, which led to the compa- ny's first contract, was negotiated through Mr. Blackstone with a

Newburgh, N.Y. shipyard. What came out of that yard was a 2,400-ton

Portuguese fishing trawler known as

Joao Martin that was built at the Hudson

River yard and shipped off to Portugal. "They (Mandell and Lester) formed the company on that job," Bruce says.

From Yachts to Commercial Design

Relying more so on yacht design than commercial and military design, which has been the company's staple for the last several decades, Mandell and Lester took on a project of their own in 1958 when they designed the family's sail- boat, the Rosa II, which is famous in the marine and sailing circles for its stylish lines. When MR/EN met with Bruce recently at M.Rosenblatt & Son's New

York City offices, a large framed copy of Mandell's original lines drawing of

October 2003 the Rosa II still hangs in the office that was once occupied by each of her co- designers. "To me (the lines drawing) of our sailboat, the Rosa II, is the greatest piece of artwork," Bruce says. The drawing three dimensionally describes the 41-ft. sailboat's hull. Since it was before the advent of CAD software,

Mandell drew the vessel's hull entirely by hand.

He also speaks of a running family joke that had to do with refuse hauling "garbage" barges on the East River.

While the company has made significant design contributions to more famous designs, such as the Spruance (DD-963) class destroyers and Unrep (Underway

Replenishment) Systems for the U.S

Navy, and the primary pilot boat for

New York harbor, the firm also designed every New York City garbage barge that has been Boating since the 1950's. "I remember being a boy of about seven- years-old," Bruce recalls. "We were out on the Rosa II and my siblings and I complained of the stench (of garbage) that permeated as some fully loaded

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