The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-12-29
MAYOR TOOK THE
 KINGS CUTTER Fitzgerald Simply Had To Visit Sir Tom Lip
 tons Yacht
GYEZz

From the Boston Post.
 How MayorS Fitzgerald on one occasion appropriated the royal cutter of the King of England for his own use and left the king and queen to cool their royal heels on a landing until the mayor got through with the craft was told by Sir Thomas Lipton during trip down the harbor which the famous Irish yachtsman took with the mayor and oth- CT city officials.
 The story as Sir Thomas told it was substantially as follows: "On the oeca- sion of a big regatta at Cowes a few years ago I was on board my boat the Erin entertaining a number of Ameri- cans among them Martin Littleton of New York. The Erin was at anchor and was lying farther out than any of the other yachts. While on deck I noticed the royal cutter headed direct for my ship. I said to my guests; We are to be visited by either the king or queen. This caused bit of furry and one or two asked if I was joking.
 q was not joking, and told them so, pointing out the royal cutter, and saying:
 
 or queen is aboard on an occasion of this kind. It is coming to this ship They wanted to know if I could make out whether it was the king or queen aboard. tried hard to, but couldn't for the life of me tell.
 ''Then my American friends hurried below and got fixed up bit, asking me in the meantime how it was customary to address the king and queen. I told them to address the king as your ma jesty' if it be he who was aboard, and if it be the queen to address her as your gracious majesty Well, the party kept rehearsing this until finally the cutter came alongside.
 And who do you suppose jumped out of the boat? Mayor Fitzgeraldl Upon my wordl And with him came his two daughters! As the mayor and his daugh- ters were leaving, the boats crew stood up and saluted. said to him: My, but you came out in great style today, Mir. Mayor What could l do? There was no other way to get here,' he answered. with a smile. But that is the royal cut ter Mir. Mayor said I. Yes, I know but l had spare day and I thought I would just pay you a visit
 'But the best of the story came out later. It seems from what we secured from the mayor and the boats crew lat CT that the mayor had very interest ing experience. The mayor was unable to obtain boat to take him out to the Erin. Finally the mayor found his way to the royal landing, where the royal cutter was awaiting the king and queen. Then, after surveying the harbor for a moment, he handed his daughters into the royal cutter and said to the boats crew, Lipton-Erin', waving one of his hands in the direction of the fleet.
 ''The boats crew stood up and salut- ed, and the mayor said" (Sir Thos. first chuckled and then broke into a hearty laugh at this juncture of the narrative), with little imperious gesture: Never mind saluting: take me to the Erin
 "The boats crew, it afterward devel- oped, while they, of course, knew that John here was not the king, thought that he must be pretty close on to 1t. They explained afterward that they thought that the king had said something They didn't like to question the kings guests, and they hastened to obey the mayors orders.
 While the cutter was on the way to the Erin the king and queen arrived at the landing, and were much annoyed at being so greatly inconyenienced There was nothing left for them to do but to dangle their heels over the side of the dock until the cutter came back or swim.
 The whole boats crew came near be- ing sacked as the result of the incident talked with the king about 1t little later, and explained the situation to him. He thought it a great joke when he saw if from all sides. In fact, nobody laugh ed more over it than he did