The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-10-21

New York, Oct. 20.-Through rough
seas and in a breeze that approached
the dignity of gale, the sloop Column
bia today vanquished the British chal-
lenger Shamrock by minutes and is
seconds actual time and minutes and
"a seconds corrected time, thus com
pleting the series for the Americas
cup, with a magnificent rough weather
duel and a glorious Yankee victory.
For the eleventh time the attempt of a
foreigner to wrest from America the
yachting supremacy of the world has
failed.
The trophy won by the old schooner
America, 48 years ago, is still ours, a
monument to the superiority of Amer
lean seamanship and American naval
architecture, and a perpetual challenge
to yachtsmen of all nations. To Sir
Thomas Upton, whose name is now
added to the list of defeated aspirants
for the honor of carrying the cup back
across the Atlantic, failure was Sc
we're blow. But, as he is a true sports
man, the sting of defeat has left no
bitterness, and he intimates that he
may be back next year with a better
boat to try again. During his stay here
Sir Thomas has made himself more
popular than any previous challenger,
and the yachtsmen Of this country will
be glad to welcome him back.
FLUKES THE ONLY DRAWBACK.
Except for the repeated f1ukes and
the accident to the challenger on Tues
day, the series of races has been I'M
marred by a single untoward incident.
The boats have had two fair and
square races, one in light airs and the
other in a heavy blow, and Sir Thomas
is satisfied that he was beaten by the
better boat Today's race was a fine
test of the rough weather qualities Of
the two big sloops There was too
much freshness in the air for comfort,
and it was far too rough for landlub-
bers. The sky was overcast with gray
clouds and chilling wind was blowing
out Of the northeast. The ocean was
a riot of whitecaps. Some of the holt
day fleet declined to go outside, and
those that did rolled and plunged in
the tumbling pillows, sending all but
the old salts below The prayer of Sir
Thomas for wind was answered.
BLEW A GALE.
1t was blowing25 miles an hour at the
lightship, enough wind and enough sea
to make any racing machine stagger.
Even the pilot boats were under short
ened sail. The course, 10 miles before
the wind, south by west, carried the
yachts straight down the Jersey coast
to point off Long Branch. so that the
race was sailed in plain view of the
thousands perched upon the heights of
Navesink and along the shore from Sea
Bright to Asbury Park The crew of
the Columbia wore oilskins and SOU
westerns and the crew Of the Shamrock
wore white canvas. 1t was blowing too
hard for club topsails, and both skip
pers contented themselves with hoist
ing small working topsails. Both
yachts sped across the starting line be-
fore the 25-knot breeze wing and wing,
with their spinnakers breaking out.
The Shamrock was over a minute and
one second before the defender. But
this was not due to superior seaman
ship Capt. Barr held off for the
length of time after the Shamrock
crossed that he might get the posi-
tion astern, where he could have an
opportunity to blanket his rival. The
Columbia carried her spinnaker boom
at an angle of almost As degrees. This
allowed "he big sail to belly far out
forward and draw like locomotive.
But it was rather dangerous, and twice
an extra uif of wind carried the sail
the stays. But the Deer Isle sailors
each time had it back in place in a
jiffy.
HOT PACE FOR STEAMERS.
The Shamrock had no such rishap,
as Hogarth carried his boom much
lower The Yankee trick, however, did
its work, lifting the head Of the Co
lumbia out of the water until she
seemed to oe skimming over the sur
face. The excursion fleet were chas-
ing after the yachts as fast as their
steam would carry them. But the big
sloops set so hot a pace that they left
half the tugboats and some of the steam
yachts astern. They were going at
1S-knot clip, the Yankee slowly but
surely, inch by inch, overhauling her
rival Closer and closer she drew,
dead astern of the challenger, hoping
with her canvas to shut off her rivals
wind. When the Columbia had crept
up to within striking distance, the
Shamrock crowded on a little more can
vas setting a baby jib topsail and for
ten minutes she seemed to hold the
American even. Both We're going very
swiftly.
AT THE OUTER MARK
AS the yachts approached the outer
L