Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1867-01-24
Tho Ocean Yacht Race.

written criticism on the ocean yacht
race, the facts of which are taken from
the leg-books Of the captains of the
three yachts. II is the cleverest and
most satisfactory statement Of the race
yet Published. The writer makes a lit
tie fun of Mr.. Flsk's unprofessional
account in the London Times, especially
in roCaTd to the alarm about the Hen
riettg 5 having been Sprung" forward,
He says:
III the schooner had been sprung
forward, we doubt whether the Captain
would not have stood on at all hazards
or pat her dead before the wind. To
bring the schooner head to wind and
max her take all the weight of the sea
upon her leaking bows, might have met
the views of such carpenter, but
would hardly have commended itself to
Captain Samuels or Mr.. Bennett"
"The navigation and sailing of
che Henrietta seems to have been mas
terly, and the yacht behaved in q man
ner that could hardly be surpassed.
Captain Samuels is entitled to great
honor and admiration for the boldness
and ability with which she was nav
gated, and the admirable sagacity with
which he stood in the southwark of his
true course when near or on soundings.
He seems to have concluded that the
wind was coming from the southwark
while it was yet titful, and by thus get,
ting TO windward he was enabled to lie
right on past the Scilly Islands and
Lizard Point and so up the Channel. This
won the race from the Vesta, for had
she been as far south as he was when
she sighted Saint Agnes Light in the
islands she might perhaps have beaten
him in
But for mistake in navigation the
writer thinks the Vesta would have Won.
He says
"On the 10th, vixen the gale prevailed
which forced the Henrietta and the
Fleetwing to lie to in the neighbOrhood
OF each other, the Nesta was one degree
and twenty-three minutes eastward of
the Fleetwing, and three degrees sixteen
minutes to the northwsrd. She had,
therefore, crossed the course Of the
other yachts ahead of them. But she
was TO the northward OF the true
course, being 1896, while st. Agnes
Light in the Scilly Islands is in less
than so degrees north, and the Lizard
Light, TO the southwark Of which she
had TO go to get up channel, is also in
less than 80 degrees north. However
IL had served her turn well to be thus to
the norJhward, for it had enabled her to
escape the heaviest of the gale which
had compelled the Others to lie-tO. The
Vesta then, to anybody who could have
surveyed them all three upon the ocean,
when the Henrietta and the Fleetwing
had made sail again, would have looked
all over like a winner"
He continues
"On the 3d. being now well in with
the land, though'not in sight of it, she
was In latitude SOIL north longitude
I240. The Sicily Islands St. Agnes
Light is in 49, SO north latitude, and 6.l9
west longitude. Therefore, the Vesta
was still a little to the northward Of it,
and less than four hundred miles is the
westward. She was at that time to the
north of St. Agnes Light, to the North
OF the Longship's Light at the Lands
End, and in q most capital place for
sparkling run up St. Georges Channel
to Liverpool, If the wind was south
but, instead of being bound up st.
Georges Channel, she was bound up the
English Channel, to the southwark and
eastward. Still there would have been
no mischief done If the wind had been
west Of southwest, and she had steered
little to the southwark of true east
course. But the next day the wind
came away south and southwest, and
when the VpSta made the islands at five
minutes before seven on Monday even
ing, she Wa To the north of them, dead
TO leeward Sixty-fi7e minutes after
wards, the Henrietta which had been
kent to the southwark Of her course,
the day before by Captain Samuels, as if
in presence of this s0utherly wind,
sighted thu light, and being south Of 1t,
stood right on into the channel, 1t is
said that the compass by which the
Tes1,. was steered, had taken her few
minutes north of where the captain
made her by reckoning for several days
prior 20 the land-lalli that is, the com
pass uad more westerly variation than
il ought to have had. A true compass
has ABOVE two points anyhow in that
latitude; but this had more. This was
enough to bring her to leeward of the
Sicily Islands, when she made them, and
it is as near certain as anything can be
that it lost the Vesta the race. Other
wise, she would have gone flying up the
channel, with the wind upon the star
board beam or quarter, an hour and five
minutes ahead of Captain Samuels. We
deemed it necessary to dwell upon these
facts, because some of the English
papers have attributed the victory OF
the Henrietta to the fact that Mr.. Bennett
was on board we think it was owing
to the fact that Captain Samuels was on
board"
GARIBALDI UPON THE CRETAN REBEL