Birmingham state herald., 1896-02-28
LORD DUNRAVEN EXPELLED By a Vote of Thirty-Nine to
 One. HIS RESIGNATION RENDERED But the Members of the Club Preferred to
 Fire Him. 6UNRAvEN'S LETTERS MADE PUBLIC Captain Ledyard Withdrew His Original Motion and Substituted Another,
 Which Was Adopted AL most Unanimously.
bUNRAvEN'S LETTERS MADE PUBLIC

New York, Feb. 27.-The following are the letters received from Lord Dunraven which were considered by the New York Yacht club at its meeting this evening:
 London, 27 Norfolk street, Park Lane, Feb. 19.-To J. V. s. Oddie, Esq, Secre- tary.-Dear Sir: In suppementing my ca blegram and letter of February IA, I wish to emphasize the fact that my letters to Messrs. Rives and Phelps were written and dispatched before had heard of the motion of Captain Ledyard.
 Without commenting upon the grounds or terms of the motion, as to the justice of which do not agree, wish to say in view of the fact that a motion of such a nature has been made and is matter of record, do not desire to remain mem Der of the club whatever may be the re- suit of the motion.
 l therefore. beg that you will lay my resignation before the club, course which will probably be approved by majority of members. 1 remain, yours faithfully, DUNRAVEN.
 On February 12, Lord Dunraven ad- dressed letter to Hon. D. J. Phelps as follows:
 Dear MT. Phelps: The attitude of as- sisting the inquiry as witness and not as prosecutor, which in the nature of the case I had to adopt and which have consistently maintained prevents me from presnming to accept or reject, or to criticise affirmatively or negatively the committees report officially. But in view of the many misunderstanding which have occurred I have felt myself Justi- fled in writing bniefiy to you, as should be sorry if you or the committee misun- derstood my silence, and in saying a few words to which you may give such pubic IA. ,t,,lr My complaint was made in good faith, on the direct evidence of the eyesight, of of my own and competent men, as to the effects, the cause of which they did not know or attempt to define.
 , It will, in my opinion, be impossible to find stronger reasons upon which action coild be taken or as justification for complaint of a like nature to that which I most reluctantly made, and am una ble therefore, to agree that the com plaint was unreasonably originated. l cannot admit that there was mistake in the observed facts as suggested by the employment of calculations which were accepted by the committee as mathemat- ically proving that we did not see the ac- tual objects which he did see. The only time for absolute proof or disproof of the complaint that the Defender did not sail the race on September under her measured load water line length must have been on the day of the race. My conduct after the first race and my atti- tude towards the inquiry when l offered to go to New York, and before the in- auiry when I was present in New York, and show my belief in that proposition, was a proposition which in my opinion was self-evident, and I think admitted in evidence by members of the cup commit- tee
 Feeling as I do upon this point, I was a. lx, st,Ir .dt,f f,f your committee the attitude which l should unhesitatingly have taken had the inquiry been conducted at the proper time by the authority under which l sailed, to which I made my complaint, and whose decision I was bound to ac- cept. I fully realized the difficulty of the situation which had arisen, think, large ly through mutual misunderstanding, and on the evidence before them I must willingly accept the main conclusions of your committee and am only too glad to consider the dispute closed.
 I have throughout frequently stated that had no charge to make against Mr. Iselin or the other owners of the boat Defender, and l do not agree that he and his friends and all connected with the vessel must have been aware of it if the Defender sailed her first race deeper than when she was measured. As this is a matter personal to them, I have written to those gentlemen to make the point per fectly clear
 There are two less important matters to which I may briefly refer. I believed, and for the reasons given in the evidence, I think I was justified in believing. that the owners of the Defender knew of my complaint ct the time it was made, but fully accept MT. Iselin's statement that he only became cogniZant of it on Octo- Der 24-
 ole I and Rogers admitting the error in my be- lief that the vessels were ordered mark ed in deference to my request made to the cup committee on September 2. though neither I nor any one connected with the Valkyrie III understood that the yachts would be marked on Septem- Der g.. I fully accept the. statements of Messrs. Garfield and Rogers that they believed that they had explained the in- tentions of the comrnittee to me. re- main, my dear MT. Phelps yours truly,
 DUNRAVEN.
 On February 8 Lord Dunraven wrote to MT. George l.. Rives. honorary secre- tsrv of the snecia1 committee as follows:
 "T beg to acknowledge receipt of copy of the report of the proceedines of the specisi committee of inquiry of the New York Yacht club and trust that you will express to tho members of the committee nv apDrociatinn of the corrtesies and na- tience with which the conduct of so diei- c,''t an inquiry has been marked. Faith- fully voUrs DONRAVEN."
 The letters of Dpnravnn to Iselin. Can field and Rogers. mentioned in his let ter to MT. Pboips. are rot embraced in the co~resnopdence made pubI'c.
 The I.edyard resolution. to which Lord Dunraver refers in his letter of resigna- to MT. Oddie. was introduced at the an- nna1 meeting of the New York Yacht club on Februarv 12.
 The New York Yacht club met tonight in special session. pursuant. to adjourn ment and exrel1ed Dun-aven by vote of 39 to l. Commodore E. M. Brown pre- sided.
 The foregoing letters were read and also.the following :H reply tc DnDraven's letter to Ar. Phelps:
 New York. Feb 22, 1ssa--To the Com modore of. the New York Yacht Clnb: Enclosed herewith will be found a coni-