New-York tribune., 1901-09-24
TWELFTH CUP RACE NEAR.
A GLANCE BACKWARD OVER THE
RACERS WHICH HAVE COME
AND GONE

AND GONE.
Just round dozen challenges have been received
for the Americas Cup, and the races brought
by the twelfth challenge at hand. Sir Thomas
Upton will now have mis- second try for the trophy.
In spite of the huge initial and that Of
una voidable delays, Sir Thomas stands his
guns. In the old days race could be sailed for
about the same cost is required for the
h1ring of tug in the chaengers fleet. For
merly, defending yachts were not built specially
for the contest. and the New-York Yacht Club
accustomed turn best boat it's best
fleet of boats to meet the invader. OF course. the
cup was originally against feet of English
craft, and until after the Ashbury the de-
fence this side conducted by fleet Mr..
Ashbury complained that boat could have
chance against fleet that undertook to blanket
the challenger and in subsequent years only
yacht was produced to defend the Cup against a
sole challenger Eighteen years elapsed after the
winning of the Cup by the keel schooner America
In 1851 before Mr. Ashbury's challenge arrived for
the race of 1870. and then his Cambria Ga vessel
still trading to West Africa contested with the
Magic, and was beaten in the and only
that sailed.
In 1871 Mr.. Ashbury brought the schooner
Livonia. which beaten by the schooner Column
ba. yacht still sailing Philadelphia and also
by the schooner Sappho Then followed years of
wordy warfare, in which the late Dixon Kemp a
well known English yachting editor. made things
hum with printers ink This is a part of the Cups
history to be mentioned. because through the
ntternesses thus engendered that the trophy got
its worldwide advertising and it's extraordinary
prominence in the realm of sport. Now that near
~ every one who took part in the early cOutro-
versies has gone under the sod no one seems to
Know, except in the vaguest way. what those pro-
ionged Trojan wars were about, but many of the
effects remained and in 1899 it was thought that
tfings had greatly changed when the English chaI-
: lenger received gold cup because he himself had
; the right ring
The contests of to-day are more nearly those OF
pure sport than they ever were before and the
history OF the Cup is also the history of the growth
or good understanding between America and Eng
land Even If Thomas J. Upton had never given of
MS thousands to the starving of Cuba if he had
never fed the poor of London his half mill
Ion to the famine stricken hordes of india he would
stH be figure in international history when after
race for the Americas Cup, the American people
asked him to take from them token of their
ton and regard. The few grave and reverend
segniors who remember the blue smoke of the early
seventies regard this great change almost a
miracle. And so it is.
The Canadians were the first to step over the
barriers raised by disputes. and in 1876 schooner
called the Countess of DufferIn came here to sail
for the Cup The name Countess Of Dufferin
then. and still is. dear to the Canadian people
in the racing of this year it comes to the fore
once again. II being that of the same woman who
recently christened the present Shamrock while
her husband is the commodore OF the club that
sends the present challenge. The challenger from
Canada sailed two races against the schooner
designer. Alexander Cuthbert brought his sloop
Ataanta from Canada and sailed two races against
the Mischief. with the usual result
So far all challenges had been met by existing
yachts which were in with their American
owners. and it was not until Sir Richard Suttons
challenge arrived proposing race with his cutter
Genesta that yachts built to compete in trial
The Puritan. designed by Edward Burgess OF Bos-
ton ton net met the the Genesta on septsmber 4 and IS 1885
centreboard yacht OF America in the first race. In
ward off Sandy Hook and return the Cenesta was
only beaten by minute and 80 seconds-a surpris-
scales as the tonnage Of the Genests was only
SbSb emile {na{ 0G the n tb Puritan R %
allowances OF the present day. would have made
Edward Burgess again stood the crucial test when
Lieutenant Hem of the royal navy; brought over
to her superior ability in the preceding trial
On epmbr G and She m s Ee and
met again. repeating past history; But the keel
the craft, produced by Burgess were getting down
board This a was Shown 9 f fh Voner 's
next creation, which was built to meet the English
of the Puritan uss5 was feet nches:th struct-
Grs depth tn Of the Maynowsr was as feet inch the
published OF the Vigilant in 1888 was 13 feet. and
from the keel u feet inches These boats showed
the gradual descending in depth till the advent of
sudden dive ia feet after HeTresbSff had seen the
Britannia win from the vgilant in 1884, and the De
fender was succeeded by the present Columbia, |
whose depth Is % feet inches.
Most people remember that the Nigilant, I'm 1898 |
heat Valkyrie ii In three straight and in |
1895. when both competitors the first time
out and out keel boats the American craft won |
the first received the second protest. and
in the third the English yacht withdrew immedi- |
ately after the start. In this series which |
the most unpleasant IN the history of the Cup the
English challenger charged the defender with hav-
ing added ballast WITHOUT measurement. He |
wholly failed in proving his charges but succeeded
in giving more offence than had ever been known |
before.
It was into these. troubled atmospheres that
Thomas Upton. Knight or the Royal Order of |
Good Will came with his olive branch and a boat |
Of the color. in 1899. and the best thing he |
said on arrival was: Il believe that all the races
for the Americas Cup have been sailed fairly on |
both sides" After that he owned New-York |
People who felt that they had been gratuitously |
insulted knew that n who believed the best |
had come for a sporting match and II they could |
not give him the silver trinket which the nation |
wears upon its neck, they could least give him |
a national handshake and memeuto OF the year |
lie is now here again to measure booms with
American defender. and at time when, owing very
largely to him, the Americas Cup fulfilling its |
own rishtful mission in being a peacenaker