The Sun.
London, England, 1851-08-25 00:00:00

MONDAY EVENING,

the world could exhibit, while it is confessed that
anything like it was never st,en even here in the an-
nals of yachting. Soon after they started a steamer
want off from the roads with the members of the sail-
ing committee, Sir B. Graham, Bart., Commodore,
Royal Yacht Squadron, and the following gentlemen :
—Lord Exmouth, Captain Lyon, Mr. A. Fontaine,
Captain Ponsonby, Captain Curry, Messrs. Harvey,
Lesiie, Greg, and Reynolds. The American Minister,
Mr. A bbott Lawrence, and his son, Colonel Lawrence,
attache to the American Legation, arrived too late for
the sailing of the America, but were accommodated
on board the steamer, and went round the island in
her, and several steamers, chartered by private gen-
tlemen or for excursion trips, also accompanied the
match.

The Gipsy Queen, with all her canvass set and in
the strength of the tide, took the lead after starting,
wi!h the Beatrice next, and then, with little ditference
I in order, the Volante, Constance, Arrow, and a fleck
of others. Tne America went easily for some time
under mainsail (with a small gaetopsail of a trian-
gular shape, braced up to the truck of the short and
slender stick which serves as her inuintopmast), fore-
sail, fore-staysail, and jib, while her opponents had
every cloth set that the club regulations allow. See
soon began to creep upon them, passing some of the
cutters to windward. In a quarter of an hour she
had left them all behind, except the Constance, Bea-
trice, and Gipsy Queen, which were well together,
and went along smartly with the light breeze. Once
or twice the wind freshened a little, and at once the
America gathered way, and pissed ahead of the
Conetance and Beatrice. Another puff came, and she
made a dart to pass the Gipsy Queen, but the wind
left her sails, and the little V, laute came skipping
past her with a stupendous jib, swallowing up all the
wind that was blowing. As the glorious pageant
passed under Oeborne House the sight was
surpassingly fine, the whole expanse of sea
from shore to shore being filled as it were with
a countless fleet, while the dark hull of the
Vengeance, 84, in the distance at Spithead, towered
in fine relief above the tiny little craft that danced
around her—the green hills of Hampshire, the white
batteries of Portsmouth, and the picturesque coast of
Wight, forming a fine framework for the picture.
As the Volante passed the America great was the
delight of the patriotic, but the nautical cognoscenti
shook their heads, and said the triumph would be
shortlived ; the breeze was freshening, and then the
sprightly cutter must give way, though she was
leading the whole squadron at the time. At 10.30
the Gipsy Queen caught a draught of wind and ran
past the Volante, the Constance, America, Arrow,
and Alarm being nearly in a hue. At 10 45 the
breeze freshened again for a short time, and the Ame-
rica passed the Arrow, Constance, and Alarm, but
could not shake off the Volante nor come up to the
Gipsy Queen, and exclamations were heard of "Well,
Brother Jonathan is not going to have it all his own
way," &c. Passing Hyde the excitement on shore
was very great, and the great ichthyosaurus-like
pier was much crowded ; but the America was
forging ahead, and lessening the number of
her rivals every moment. Tne Sandheads
were rounded by the Volante, Gipsy Queen, and
America without any perceptible change in point of
time at 11 o'clock, the last being apparently to lee-
ward. Again, the wind freshened, and the fast yachts
creme rushing up before it, the run from the Sand-
heads being most exciting and well contested. Here
one of the West India mail steamers was observed
paddling her best to come in for some of the fun, and
a slight roll of the sea inwards began to impart a live-
lier motion to the yachts, and to render amateurs,
whether male or female, ghastly-looking and uncom-
tunable. The yachts were timed off Noman's Land
buoy, and the character of the race at this moment
may be guessed from the result—
h. m. a.
Volante 11 7 0
Freak ... 11 8 20
Aurora ... ... 11 8 20
&pay Queen 11 8 45
A merica, ... 11 9 0
Beatrice ... 11 9 15
Alarm ••• ••• ••• 11 9 20
Arrow 11 10 0
bacchante 11 10 15
The other six were staggering about the rear, and the
Wyvern soon afterwards hauled her wind, and went
back towards Cowes. At this point the wind blew
somewhat more steadily, and the America began to
show a touch of her quality. Whenever the breeze
took the line of her hull ell her sails set as flat as a
drumhead, and, without any careening or staggering,
she "walked along" past cutter and schtnuer, and,
when off Brading had left every vessel in the squadron
behind her—a mere ruck—with the exception of the
Volante, which she overtook at 11 30, when she very
quietly hauled down her jib, as much as to say she
would give her rival every odds, and laid herself' out
for the race round the back of the island. The wea-
ther showed symptoms of improvement, so far as
y achting was concerned ; a few seahoraes waved their
crests over the water, the high lands on shore put on
their fleecy "nightcaps" of cloud, and the horiz
looked delightfully threatening ; and now " the
Yankee" flew like the wind, leaping over, not against,
the water, and increasing her distance from
the Gipsy Queen, Volante, and Alarm every
instant. The way her sails were set evinced
• superiority in the cutting which our makers would
barely allow; but, certain it is, that while the jibs
mud mainsails of her antagonists were " bellied out,"
her canvas was as Het as a sheet of paper. No foam,
nut rather a water-jet, rose from her bows; and the
greatest point of resistance—for resistance there must
'lt somewhere—seemed about the beam, or just for-
ward of her mainmast, for the seas fleshed off from
her sides at that point every time she met them.
While the cutters were thrashing through the water,
'ending the spray over their bows, and the schooners
ere wet up to the foot of the foremast, the America
was as dry as a bone. She had twenty-one persons
on her deck, consisting of the owners, the crew, cook.
and steward, a ()owes pilot named Underwood, and
some seamen who had been lent her by the Sur-
prise, a London-built schooner yacht, now at Cowes
Roads. They nearly all sat aft, and when the vessel
did not require any bundling crouched down on the
deck by the weather bulwarks. The Gipsy Queen.
when a little past Brading, seemed to have carried
Away her foresail sheets, but even had it riot been so
she had lost all chance of success. The America, as
the wind increased, and it was now a six knot breeze,
et least, hauled down her wee gaffcopsail, sod went away
under mainsail, foresail, and forestaysail, so that it re
quired the utmost the steamer could do to keep alongside
• her. This was her quickest bit of sailing, for on
rounding the east point of the island it was necessary
to beat to the westward, in order to get along the
hack of the Wight. At 11 37 the Arrow, Bacchante,
Constance, and Gipsy Queen stood away to the
north, to round the Nab, imagining, most probably,
that it was requisite to do so, es the usual course cer -
`ainly is to go outside the lightship, though the cards
did not specify it on this occasion. The America and
most of the other yachts kept their course round the
Foreland and by Bembridge. She ran past the white
and black buoys at a tremendous rate, and at 11 47
tacked to the west, and steod in towards the Culver
cliffs, the nearest yacht being at least two miles to
leeward or astern of her. She was not very quick in
stays on this occasion, and it would seem she was not
very regular in that macceuvre, sometimes taking a
minute, sometimes 30 seconds, to perform it. At 11.58
she stood out again to the south-east, and, having
taken a stretch of a mile or so, went about, and ran
in towards Sundown. The breeze died off at this
point, and to keep the cutters and light craft off the
America hoisted her gaff topsail and • jib once
more. Under Shanklin Chine the set of the
tide ran heavily against her, but still there was no-
, hing to fear, for her rivals were miles away, some
almost hull down ! While running under Dunnose
at 12.58 her jibboom broke short off. It may be re-
membered she procured the spar from Retsey, of Cowes,
but no blame attaches to him, for not only did he re-
commend Messrs. Stephens to take a yellow spar
instead of the white one they selected, but the boom
was broken by mismanagement on the part of the men
when straining on it with the windlass, and did not
snap from the action of the sail. This accident threw
her up in the wind, and gave the advantage of about a
quarter of an hour to her opponents, while she was
gathering in the wreck. But it was of little use to
them. Looking away to the east, they were visible at
great distances, standing in shore or runni▪
ng in and
out most helplessly astern, the Aurora, Freak, and yo-
!ante, in spite of light winds and small tonnage, being
two or three miles behind. The wind fell off very much
for more than an hour, and it was but weal), work
stretching along the coast against a baffling tine, every
moment making the loss of her jib of greater, o conse-
quence to the America. Soon after three clock the
Arrow managed to run on the rocks to the east of Mill
Bay ; and the sailing committee's steamer the Queen,
Her Majesty, an excursion boat, and the Alarm
yacht at once made in to her assistance. They
ran down to the ledge of rocks on which
she was fixed, between Ventnor and Bonchurch, and
"Her Majesty," falling on her with a hawser, steamed
away as hard as she could, and, after some 20 or 30
minutes, towed off the poor little Arrow, which won
but the other day at the Ryde Regatta, in such a
condition that " she never more was fit for sea." She
put about and went off towards the Nab, with the in-
tention of returning to Cowes; and the Alarm, which
might have had a chance with Brother Jonathan in a
....-
heaVy, seaway, kept her company in the same direc-
tion, having generously run down to aid the Arrow.
The America at this time was some miles ahead, and,
as the breeze freshened from W.S.W. W., slipped
along on her way, making tacks with great velocity,
and stood well up to windward. Her superiority was
so decided that several of the yachts-wore, and went
back again to Cowes in despair ; and, for about another
half-hour the New York boat increased her distance
e very second, the Aurora, Freak, and Volant•
e,
_ke. p-
lug in. a little squadron tegether—tack tacks-eand
running along aloe under the cliffs. We was rather