The Sun.
London, England, 1870-08-09 00:00:00

THE YACHT RACE.

The national pride was wounded yesterday afternoon
when the Royal Yacht signal, floating from the western
flagstaff of the City Hall, gave notice of the result of
the international race, which for the last two days has
engrossed even more of public attention than the
Franco-German war. There had been from the first a
general confidence in the:. victory of the Dauntless.
The superiority of America in the building and
management of fast-sailing ' craft was supposed to
be conceded by all the world. Since that famous little
schooner yacht now cruising under Commander Meade in
New York Bay crossed the ocean nineteen years ago, and
carried off the the Queen's Cup at the Cowes Regatta, we
have never believed that any nation could beat us in this
kind of marine architecture. The recent victories of the
Sappho increased our confidence ; and when Mr. Ben-
nett, with one of the most perfect yachts ever built
in the United States, and one of the most skil-
ful sailing-masters who ever crossed the Atlantic,
proposed this great ocean race, we felt that our credit was
in safe hands, and had our laurels all ready to crown him
when he should sail victorious into port. And the
Cambria beat us after all ! Well, despite our disappoint-
ment and surprise, we give Mr. Ashbury a cordial
welcome, and our congratulations upon his success are
not the less sincere because they are mingled with
regret for our own defeat. It has been a gallant
race, in which the victor deserves all the glory
that the most enthusiastic yachtsman will give
him ; a race in which each party has reason to be proud
of its antagonist. There are many accidents that in a
three-weeks' ocean voyage might give a victory to the in-
ferior vessel. The Cambria and. Dauntless followed
widely different courses. The winds and currents which
favoured the one might retard the other. The track
chosen by Captain Samuels may have been by all rules of
seamanship the most promising, and yet, as no man can
foretell the weather, it may have actually proved the
worst. The art of navigation is always more
or less a calculation of chances, and the best calculations
are sometimes at fault. We cannot therefore pronounce,
from the mere result of such a close race as this, that the
Cambria is the better vessel of the two ; and if the
Dauntless comes into port' two hours later than her
antagonist, our pride in the crack vessel of the American
yacht squadron is not thereby sensibly lessened. We have
beeu fairly and honourably beaten. Both vessels have done
themselves credit. We give full credit to the victor; but
we give credit also, in almost equal measure, to the van-
quished. When the Englishmen beat our college students
in the Cambridge boat race we accepted the defeat with
all frankness, and they celebrated their victory with a
generous and kindly feeling which we shall not soon
forget. Now they have beaten us again, and we
hope our amateur sailors will give them full credit
for their victory, and treat them with all possible
hospitality and honour. The Cambria has yet to contend
with the New York squadron for the possession of the
trophy which the America carried away from Cowes in
1851. We hope she may be beaten ; but beaten or victo-
rious we hope her owner may carry away with him
a pleasant recollection of the frankness good temper, and
generous sentiments of American yachtsmen. —New York
Tribune, July 28.