The San Francisco call., 1899-10-17
VICTORY PERCHES ON
THE SPEEDY COLUMBIA
Continued from First Page.

first, but by what margin the Columbia
would do IT, Right granQlv she swept to-
ward the turning point, her sails showing
faint and shadowy in the mist that was
then yelling the ocean, and as the mark
came slipping by her port bow and beam
every whistle from every steamship was
let loose in loud acclaim of the victory
which the American yacht had won.
There were many of the Columbia's s en-
thusiasts on board the Grand Duchesse
and there was an impromptu war dance
when the American yacht, after rounding
the mark, dropped her spinnaker boom TO
port and swinging her main boom to star
board, broke out the spinnaker and bal
loon jib and under that great cloud of can
vas started on the hOmeward run. a lace
work of foam about her bow and seas
brimming under her counter and along her
rail. The graceful undulations seemed to
be more marked as she drew abeam of the
laggard Shamrock still reaching for the
outer mark. Dropping a courtesy to her
rival. one so pronounced that it almost
dipped her bellying balloon jib aback. the
Yankee cutter then 1irted her heels at the
Shamrock and sped into a bank of mist
which came rolling by just then as if to
shield the others defeat
To those who were eager to follow the
Columbia in her run back TO the light
rock to round the outer mark seemed a
long and tiresome one. The Columbia
had vanished in a drift of vapor and to
the eXcursionists it seemed as though the
Shamrock would never get to the mark
or around it. Eager they all were to fol-
low the American boat in her homeward
flight, for never was a finer picture pre-
sented than that she showed as she drove
into that bank of mist, her sails looking
oh lra &c fod I7%o fr,d{
and finally disappeared. 1t was all imagi-
nation, Of course. but it looked to the
watchers as though some of the lead
colored atmosphere, some of the weight
of that dense fog, had got into the Sham
rocks keel. Slowly she drew toward the
bobbing mark, and bit sluggishly, half
heartedly It seemed, she rounded 1t, and
then with booms a-swing and bellying
spinnaker and balloon jb added 10 her
other sails, took up the trail of the van
ished leader. That she had many admir-
ers in the excursion fleet or that the ex-
cursionists felt magnanimity toward the
vanquished was shown by the noisy.
long -drawn-out whistles which greeted
the somewhat delayed performance Of
getting around the turning mark
Long before the leading yacht had
reached the finish line 1t was a foregone
conclusion that the victory was the Co.
lumbia's. Even the most extreme of the
Shamrock's advocates admitted that. and
none Of those hesltated to say that the
reason of it was that the Shamrock had
been outsailed.
The Irish boat was hopelessly beaten in
work to windward, beaten so badly that
even her most optimistic followers had
little or no hope Of her being able to over
come the lead which the Columbia gained
on the first leg. There were some who
for a few minutes held to the belief that
the Shamrock might overcome that ad-
vantage on the homeward run, but these
did not hold that view long. And still
fewer. If any there were, who believed
that the Shamrock would be so cleanly, so
overwhelmingly defeated as she was in
to-day's struggle. Despite the weather
conditions it was magnificent and to the
few who saw it, it made up for the re-
peated disappointments of the past The
excursion crowd was a small one, for the
day was anything but promising and
there had been so many failures in the
past that comparatively few took chances
with the weather.