The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1920-07-14
Has Been on This Side for Sixty-nine
Years and is furnished With
Age and Full of
Dust.
BIG RACE TOMORROW
British Will Try for Fourteenth Time
to Win Silver Cup Emblem
Of Sea Prov.
ess.

NEW YORK, July 14-Tarnishee
with age, Justified from disuse, q
silver cup worth $500 when it was
cast in 1881 rests in the vault OF the
| New York Yacht club. Tomorrow the
j fourteenth race for it's title will be
started, weather permitting
For the possession of that cup
l hardly worth twice it's original cost
] close to six million dollars has been
! spent and for it the best skill and
| science Of the marine building world
| have been expended for sixty-nine
| years.
americas cup" emblematic of the
supremacy Of the seas, has been the
] coveted trophy of yachtsmen since
before the civil war, since the days
when pack trails provided the only
avenues into the great west and since
the days before the transatlantic
cables connected the two worlds.
In all that time, against the chaI-
lenges of the world, the cup has re-
manned in America. In a pawnsnop
the cup wouldn't draw enough to pay
one crew in trial race, but the
ideals which it represents, the tradi-
tons of the sea, gives it a sentimen.
tai value and a place in national
affection that makes it worth the
fortunes spent on it and will justify
the outlay Of millions in the future
for its defense.
After the cup was won in 1851 by
the historic America it remained out
of competition for fifteen years when
the New York Yacht club set it up
before the world as challenge
trophy.
In the fall of 1858, James Asbury,
a wealthy Britisher who owned the
Cambria, challenged the cup holders
for race. Correspondence was car
.ried on for two years, but it had no
results since Asbury had no club
affiliations and the cup holders were
not forced to defend against private
challengers.
! However, in July, 1870 Asbury
sailed the Cambria over and a race
was arranged with twenty-three
American yachts against her. The
course was off Staten Island in the
upper bay through the Narrows, down
the bay to Sandy Hook lightship and
return, a distance of thirty-eight
nautical miles.
The race was won by the Magic
with Idler second, Dauntless third.
America fourth, and Cambria, the
challenger, eighth.
Asbury protested the race on num-
erous grounds, but they were all over
ruled.
AS soon as he returned to England,
Asbury started building another chal-
lenger. He complained against fleet
racing declaring it was against the
letter of the deed and suggested 4
match race.
His complaint met with a conces-
sion from the New York Yacht club
and the defenders agreed to send a
single yacht against the challenger.
On October Is, 1871, the club chose
the Columbia as the defender against
Asbury's Livonia. The Columbia got
away to good lead when the race
was started and had three minutes
on the challenger at III miles.
Father along in the race the lead
was increased to forty minutes. but
was cut down later and the Livonia
was beaten by twenty-seven minutes
four seconds. Columbia won the
second race by five minutes and six
teen seconds. Several accidents 10
the Columbia gave the third race 70
the Livonia and for the fourth race
the Sappho was chosen as the de-
fender in place of Columbia. Two
days later, October 81. Sappho won
and again in the fifth race a day
later
Asbury then gave up his quest for
the cup and the Royal Canadian
Yacht club renewed the competitions
in 1876 with the schooner, the Coun:
tess OF Dufferin. The defender, the
Madeleine, defeated the challenger.
Canada tried again in 1881 when
the Bay Of Quinta club of Ontario
sent down the sloop Atlanta and she
was in turn beaten by the Mischief. |
Four years elapsed and the matches |
were resumed with series of annual !
races starting in 1885.
The defender Puritan defeated the ,
Genesta in 1885 and the challenger |
Galatea was beaten by the defender |
year the defender Volunteer again |
won against the Thistle.
In 1893 Lord Dunraven set out to
bring the cup bcak to England. He
sent over the palkyrie H. The cup
was defended successfully. by Vigi.
liant, the first of the line of HERE
shoff sloops which are represented
again this year by Resolute, the 1e.
fender.
Dunraven tried his luck again in
1895 with Valkyrie III. The first race
of the series was won by the De
fender in light wind In the second
race. Defender was fouled by che |
and lost the race with a
broken wing. A protest was lodged
on the grounds of a foul and when
the yacht club sustained the profess,
Dunraven withdrew in anger and re-
fused to continue.
When Dunraven gave up his am
bition to win the cup, Sir Thomas +
Upton, perhaps the most romantic
figure in the history of the cup races, /
took up the task and is still at it TO E
this day. ]
The first Of bis family of Sham +
rocks appeared in 1899. but she was