Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1920-06-06
BY LAWRENCE PERRY.

interest in the thirteenth
- series of races for the America s
, cup, which will be sailed of
Sandy Hook, has as it's stimulus
something vastly more poignant than the
nero sporting aspect involved. The event
has roots which are sunk in the sub-soil
! of national pride; in this and in other
respects it carries connotations which
define it as unique among all inter-
national relations. sporting or other
wise. The romance of the sea enters.
Great races have been sailed and have
become part of glowing tradition:
stirring events have been directly or
! indirectly associated with 1t.
The Americas cup stands as the
trophies; nearly seventy years have
elapsed since the schooner yacht
America sailed across the ocean to
England and on August %, 1851, won
the Royal Yacht Squadron cup in a
race around the Isle of Wight against
a feet Of seventeen Of the swiftest
schooners and cutters that the Eng
+, lish could muster. At the time the
New York Yacht Club, under whose
burgee America sailed, was the only
yacht club on this continent; it was
| seven years old. The civil war was
yet ten years away. Wagon trains
were making their way into the great
west, which was still unconquered.
The Crimean war had not been fought.
There were no transatlantic cables.
These few facts are suggestive of the
changing conditions and varying as
poets under which the venerable
maritime controversy between Britain
and the United States has been con-
Quoted.
| Soon at 1t Again.
Now they're at it again-or soon
will be. And the winds Of the Hook
of past days as they send the latest
cup racers over the rolling waves
Sixty-nine years has the cup which
the schooner America brought to this
country remained in the custody of
the New York Yacht Club.
l oII&lAdAy LILO SfStoky Va <A4hSA AS<s
over the best Of the English racing
yachts came as a complete surprise
to the Britons who. however, took
it in the finest sporting spirit. and
then. no doubt, forgot all about 1t.
But we were a young nation and tri-
umphs such as this over. the mother
country could not fail to live as an
tsvar-ilowing fountain Of pride. And
no 1t has lived from the time when
iAmerica returned to this country and
officers .spd screw received =. public
|demonStrAffon until now, when =
British challenger seeks to take the
cup to its native land. When the
british first thought Of coming here
to regain the prize 1t is quite prob
liable. in view Of their nautical tradi-
ton and prestige, that they did not
regard the task as insuperable; that
1t involved merely the sending of a
crack yacht, an expert skipper and
thoroughly trained crew across. the
Atlantic
Boat After Boat Created.
But 1t proved to be not so simple as
that. Indeed, each successive attempt
on the part of the British to lift the cup
demonstrated anew the difficulties. not
to say the complexities. Of the problem.
Great Britain's most expert designers
created boat after boat which. sailed by
the most expert windjammers that the
isles could produce, came to this coun-
try seeking to retrieve the lost blue rib
bon Of the seas. In vain. Through every
test which our oversee cousins pro-
posed we have emerged sometimes by a
wide margin; sometimes by the skin OF
our teeth-and, whisper it, sometimes
by sheer, downright Yankee good luck.
But by and large, as the sailors say.
our designers have been a bit cleverer
and our shippers a shade more expert
or slick-than the British. So the cup
is still here. Whether the same state
lment can be made after the series which
begin on July is off Sandy Hook re-
mains to be seen.
Seventeen years having elapsed since
the last cup races were held. brief dip
into the history Of these events will not
be out Of order. First Of all, the trophy
itself is not Of any great intrinsic value.
Originally it cost s100-$500 in our
money The discrepancy at present be.
tween the dollar and the pound sterling,
as well as the increased cost Of pre-