The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-09-08

which seemed ever ready to engulf them
and made more noise with their whistles
than boats of respectable size. The pro-
cession down the bay, though somewhat
obscured by the haze which hung over the
water, was one of the sights of the day.
Slow boats starting first were passed by
faster ones which left the city later. and
the line of vessels was one OF kaleidoscope
changes.
The fleet of steam yachts anchored off
Bay Ridge and along Staten Island shore
of the bay moved out one by one and
joined the passenger steamers III the chan
mel outward bound. The finest floating
palaces in American waters were in the
procession, and the passengers on dollar
ahead excursion boats, who found them
selves sandwiched in between the yachts
of the Astor and Vanderbilt families, con
cluded that they were in the swim at last.
On the club steamers yachtsmen, with
rakish caps and gold embroidery, were nu-
merous. They were accompanied by
yachtswomen in rigs as marvellous of de-
sign as the combination aluminium and
bronze creations whose performance they
were going to witness.
The patrol division, the steam yacht
Alicia, Captain H. NJ. Flagler, the flagship,
was quite a formidable fleet. 1t consisted
of twelve handsome yachts and might be
said to have been more ornamental than
useful. Ii blowing of whistles constituted
the duty of the patrols, then they did their
duty nobly. The patrols were the first to
come down the bay. They made their
rendezvous at first near the Sandy
Hook lightship, where they attempted
to Keep the boats half a mile
from the starting line, but finally gave it
up. The boats formed cluster so close
to the line that for moment it seemed
impossible for the racers to reach the start
without fouling dozen or more craft.
When the announcement was made of a
change of course, the great feet of attend
ing craft took up anchor and sailed for the
new course. The patrol got lost in the
maze of boats, and but little was seen of
them for the rest ofthe day.
The Defender was the first of the two
racers to make sail. Both anchored in
side of Sandy Hook. in the Horseshoe over
night, and were near at hand this morn
ing. The Defender sent up her sail at s 80
and took line from the tug Wallace. On
the way out to the lightship her club top
sail was sent aloft and her iib broken
out. She used suit of ramie-cloth
sails of a yellow tinge, excepting
the club topsail. which was snow white.
The Defenders sides are pale blue since
her last painting and her appearance was
less beautiful than in the trial races when
sails and hulls were pure white. Her sails
set better to-day than in any of her races
with the Vigilant, and that they did good
work is shown by the result of
the race. On her were the happy
family which has practically lived on
board for the last two months. There
were G. Oliver Iselin, Mrs. Iselin, Wood
bury Kane, Herbert c. Leeds and New
berry Thorne. David Henderson, of the
Anchor Line, was on board as the repre-
sentative of Lord Dunraven. Designer
Nat Herreshoff was also there. Captain
Hank Haff was at the wheel and the yellow
dog, Sandy, played mascot.
The Valkyrie left her anchorage at 8: 10
in tow of the White Star tug Pulver. She
had her mainsail up and her jib and stay
sail in stops. When off the point of the
Hook her jib topsail was sent aloft 1t
was a trife larger than the similar sail
carried by the Defender. On her decks
were Lord Dunraven, his two daughters,
the Lady Rachel Quin and Lady Wind
ham Quin, Archie Goodwin, Designer