Kentucky Irish American. (Louisville, Ky.) 1898-1968, 1898-09-10
Sir Thomas Upton Well Represented.
The Document Carried by Men
With Histories.
The Picturesque and Romantic Site
Of the Royal Ulster Yacht Club
Association.
WHERE THE RACER is TO BE BUILT

The formal challenge of Sir Thomas
Upton for the Americas Cup on behalf
of his ninety-foot cutter Shamrock, which
was issued through the Royal Ulster
Yacht Club, was duly signed by the
representatives of the Irish club, the
members of the committee affixipg their
names to the document shortly after
O'Clock Tuesday afternoon. The def
was cheerfully accepted by the New York
Yacht Club, whose representatives also
placed their names to the articles of
agreement and conditions.
With the arrival in this country of the
quartet of yachtsmen from the Royal
Ulster Yacht Club, bearers of Sir Thomas
Lipton's challenge of the Americas Cup,
interest in the sport, which has received
little impetus during the past season, is
reviving, and yachtsmen are looking
forward to red letter year in 1899. The
challenger is known to some extent in
this country, and in a vague way the
reputation of the shipyard of Harland
& Wolff has spread to these shores.
Little, however, has been written of Sir
Thomas associates in the Royal Ulster
Club. The names of Sharman-Crawford,
McGildowner and Kelly are well known
in Irish history, as is also that OF Lord
Dufferin, Commodore of the club through
which the challenge is issued.
Sir Thomas Upton is proud OF the
land of his fathers. The "hard times"
in Ireland drove his parents out to seek
work and shelter in the city of Glasgow,
in which he was born, but the accident
of his birth has never caused him to
look upon himself other than an irish
man. There are thousands, besides, OF
Glasgow Irish, the offspring of famine
DAYS, but the strip of sea between the
Scotch and Irish coasts does not separate
their hearts from the old land. Wealth
and honors have not rendered Sir Thomas
any less sterling than plain Tom Upton
and the genuineness of his character is
made clear when, turning homeward,
he raises up Ireland to challenge for the
Americas Cup.
The shipyard in which the Shamrock
is to be built takes rank with the greatest
in the world. For centuries Ireland
knew not trade and no merchandise was
imported or exported in Irish-built ships
One hundred and sixteen years ago these
restrictions we're removed, aud England,
in difficulty, in response to the demaud
of Henry Grattan and the volunteers,
granted free trade" or rather the right
to trade. But what with famines and
instructions, nothing on a large scale
was attempted in shipbuilding for over
half a century. Yards were established
in various parts of the country, but the
first to really attract general attention
and attain more than local prominence
was that of Harland & Wolff. Sites with
deeper water and better natural facilities
in every sense of the word could be had
In other cities, but exorbitant prices were
asked, and eventually the workshops
were erected OH the strip of land known
as the Queens Island, on the County
Down side of the city of Belfast, then
town struggling CALAMITY out of its
swaddling clothes. The island was orig
inally little better than mud heap, and
was known as bargains Island, but local
enterprise connected it with the main
land, and on it was erected one of those
crystal palaces, craze for which existed
in the early years of Queen Victoria's
reign. The young Queen was received
in this palace on her first and last visit
to Ireland, some forty-eight years ago,
and in commemoration of this the island
and its connecting filled-in ground was
renamed the Queens Island
Since the opening of the shipyard more
ground has been reclaimed from the
River Isagan, until now the great yards
cover many acres and give employment
to upward of 5000 men. The finest
craving docks in the world have been
built at the island, and in the workshops
are fashioned everything that goes to
constitute modern steamship, from the
simplest rivet to the most complex piece
of machinery. There have been turned
out all of the magnificent feet of the
White Star line, including such ocean
flyers as the Majestic and the Teutonic.
lust now the Oceanic is being built there,
and she, It is promised, will be the larg-
est ship that sails the seas. At the
Queens Island are also built the mag
nifcently luxurious ships of the PENN
sular and Oriental Steamship Company.
Hsrland & Wolff have besides added
some Of its finest vessels to the British
navy. Harland was several times Mayor of
Belfast aud was rewarded with baronetcy
for the style in which he received their
Royal Highnesses, the Prince and Princess
of Wales, during his term. Of Office in the
early eighties. He was at FIRST offered
knighthood for his eourtesies on that