Ivar Widing Collection

Ivar Widing was born in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1888. In 1905, at the age of 17, he moved to the United States and became a naturalized citizen in 1911. He worked as an illustrator and started a firm in Boston with his business partner, David L. Munro. He was an avid sailor, having been around boats since he was three years old. In 1913, he and his sister Edith took a sailing canoe 150 miles from Boston to Cousins Island in Maine. The following year, he and his partner Munro built a motor cruiser. They wanted to sail around the world, but the outbreak of World War I interrupted their plans.

In 1915, during a quiet time for his business, Widing decided to sail from Boston to Key West alone in a small boat, called the "Nutshell," which was only five feet wide and twelve feet long. He left Boston on December 8 with a small number of supplies. Each evening he camped on shore, but he occasionally docked in a larger city (such as New York City) where he would stay in a hotel, pick up his mail, and restock his provisions. The weather during the early part of his journey was poor; at one point, ice in the harbors forced him to ship his boat by rail from Plymouth to Fall River, Massachusetts. He faced other hazards on the journey, including being chased by a bull off the shore of North Carolina and avoiding robbers in St. Augustine. He arrived safely in Key West on March 31, 1916.

In 1918, Widing married Nina M. Porter, a stenographer originally from New York. He was also involved in a new business venture that same year. The "Wanderer," the motor cruiser he built with David L. Munro in 1916, had an unusual and innovative design that included a hull formed from concrete. Widing's experience building the "Wanderer" led him to join several others in the organization of a new company in Savannah, Georgia, the Concrete Steel Shipbuilding Company. He served as both the vice president and the chief of the hull department. After the company's establishment, Widing and his wife sailed the "Wanderer" to Savannah, and it was the first time that a concrete ship had entered its port. He also received a patent related to concrete ship construction in 1920. The success of the venture was short lived. The Concrete Steel Shipbuilding Company dissolved shortly after the end of World War I, and Widing died in December 1921.