St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-09-11

NEW YORK, Sept 10.-Crippled,
but still heeling far over her in
strength and swiftness, Defender
followed Valkyrie across the finish
line today. Less than half a mile
separated the two, and anxious eyes
kept pace, second by second, with
the time indicators as they moved
around, and when it was seen that
the American Defender had lost
nothing in the last twenty miles of
the course, but had actually gained,
a great shout went up for the gal
liant struggle the vessel had made.
There were cheers for the victor, too,
but although Valkyrie Ill was the
first challenger since III to lead over
the home line, the honor of her per-
formance was lost sight of for the
time in the grand effort of the Amer
lean, for if it were for nothing else,
the American heart loves the hard
loser in the fight, and loves him the
| more when he loses it through no
fault of his own. 1t was a grievous
accident that ruined the Yankee
boats chances, an accident which,
| under the hair-splitting circum-
stances of jockeying at the starting
line, looked to be unavoidable.
Early in the morning the racers
had leisurely made their way down
to the Hook from Bay Ridge, white
winged and beautiful. They circled
in great rings about the lightship
until the signals went up for the
course, and then the shippers took
tighter grip on the wheel. Capt.
Hank Haff had made a record in
seamanship Saturday, and the Eng
lish skipper prepared to regain the
fame which had preceded him. They
maneuvered swiftly after the pre-
paratory gun had been fired, and,
with Valkyrie to the windward,
Capt. Haff made every effort to gain
that position. Just before reaching
the line, when Valkyrie was still
to windward and Defender to lee
ward, a length astern, but still over
hauling her, the American boat was
! blanketed SO much that her baby
| jib topsail and jib shook. Capt.
Half, seeing this, luffed up a little,
evidently intending to let the other
boat go ahead for the purpose OF
enabling him to pass under her
! stern and to windward.
FOULED BY THE vALKYRIE.
Capt. Sycamore, at Valkyrie's TIL
Ter, noted this move and luffed up
also. It was then that the thou
sands of watchers on the surround
ing boats noticed how dangerously
close to each other the racers were.
| And just at that moment, too,. a
snap and a rending sound were
heard, and it was seen that De-
tenders jib topsail was flying loose
| in the wind. Valkyries main boom
had swung around and fouled De-
tenders rigging. To those who had
witnessed the accident and sprang
forward at the ominous sound, it
seemed as though Defender trem-
bled with the shock. They saw her
| topmast bend and her topsail swing
over as though it would break away,
and a groan went up as though the
brave boat, which had won so noble
a victory a few days before, was
wholly debarred from even an effort
to secure a. second. Lightning action
was necessary to save the topnast
from breaking away completely, for
it was already sprung from it's fast
enings, and Capt. Haff, with a mas
ter stroke, taking his boat to lee
ward, soon maneuvered her into a
safe position and gave chase.
Valkyrie, which had crossed the
line first, had gained a good lead
by Defenders disaster, and had
proba bly, a little more than half a
mile advantage at the end of the
first leg in the triangular course
over which they sailed. Her gain
was something less than four min
utes in the beat to the windward.
From that on, however, Defender,
while not perceptibly closing the gap
between them, lessened the time,
and they crossed the line not much
more than two minutes apart. Val
kyrie, according to corrected time
however, wins the race from Defend
er by just forty-seven seconds.