Charles G. Davis was born in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. on July 22, 1870, and died in Manor Haven, Port Washington, N.Y. on January 22, 1959, aged 80. His father was clerk to Admiral David G. Farragut, Union Naval Commander during the Civil War. He began his love of boats and sailing at an early age; he is reputed to have sailed around Cape Horn in a square rigger at the age of thirteen. He and his older brother, William, built their own boat in 1884, cruising the Hudson and Western Long Island Sound in her before purchasing, refitting and racing an old sandbagger.

In 1889 he went to work in New York as a draftsman for William Gardner, the Clydeside Scots steam yacht designer, and filling in on a job at T.R. Webber's boat shop where he began to do some independent designing. His eyesight became affected and in 1892 he signed on as an AB on the Bark JAMES A. WRIGHT out of Boston for a trip around Cape Horn to Chile. After another year in Gardner's office, he again went to sea in the J. PERCY BERTRAM in the West Indies trade. Upon his return from this trip, he began to design racing boats for Webber and later for Larry Huntington in New Rochelle, N.Y.

About 1898 he joined the staff of The Rudder and was its design editor for several years. At the outbreak of World War I he joined the Elco Boat Builders, managing their plans at Halifax, N.S. and Montreal where wooden submarine chasers were being assembled for England. In 1917 he became general manager of the Trailer Ship Building Corporation at Cornwells, Pa. supervising the building of wooden steam, and after the War he became associated with the United States Maritime Service. From 1925 to 1927 he was in retirement in St. Petersburg, Florida, but returned to Port Washington to work as a draftsman under A. Couch for Toms & King, Inc.

In 1935 Davis again retired. He moved to Cazenovia, N.Y. and began building ship models, many of which are on display in the Stillman Building at Mystic Seaport Museum. In 1940 he was called out of retirement by the Navy to become head hull inspector for wooden PT boats and minesweepers at the Nevins, Jacobs and United Shipyards at City Island, N.Y. He retired for a third time at the end of World War II.

He was a charter member of the Cruising Club. He was also an enthusiastic and skillful racer of small boats, and often enlisted his sons, Theodore and William, to crew for him. As an author, he wrote many technical articles for Yachting, The Rudder, Motor Boat and other magazines, as well as several books on sailing ships and ship models. He is said to have made detailed drawings of every Navy sailing ship built. His pen and ink sketches, ranging from old square rigged vessels to modern racing yachts, are sprinkled throughout his writings in this collection.