New-York tribune., 1921-09-26


the heart of this great seaport, stir
the nations heart, in the thought
that it was possible for the old
America to behold her birthplace
once more ere she lets go of her last
anchor in the Severn at Annapolis.
Fer aged tinbers must have
thrilled as, entering that reach of
the East River between Williams
burg on the one hand and Twenty
third Street on the ether, she re-
called the days of her youth! What
memories must have crowded upon
her! And if those who paused to
watch her go by, seeing in her only
the relic of the most famous yacht
IN all history, had been able to un-
derstand the language of ships as
did New Workers., and, for that mat
ter, all Americans of the fifties,
what tale she could have told them
"a tale to warm the blood and whip
their pride as with sparkling wine
tale of both shores lined with ship
. yards whose products have never
been equalled in all the world-a
magical tale of dreamers whose
genius lifted the fabrication of ves-
sells from the level Of a journey
mans trade to the plane Of an exact
science, and thereby made a starred
banner the talsman of the earth S
commerce and enthroned this nation
mistress of the seas.
We wish we might have been
aboard Of the America as she
slipped downstream, alongside h~r
sub-chaser cohsort, and had her
point out just where old Jabez Will
liams and his sons had their yard in
Williamsburg-the yard that bore
the clippers Eclipse, Antelope, Tor
nado and Simeon, the most famous
Of the cracks launched from the
Kings County shore. The America
would have known exactly, for in
81, her own year, those four beau
ties were being laid down and
launched for the California trade.
But being Manhattanite, we can
imagine that the America would not
have dWelt long on williamsburg or
the Williamses. For her, perhaps,
and naturally, the whole story lies
on the New York side, beginning
with Hathorne g. Steers's yard,
where she was born More than a
yacht builder was George Steers.
Before he designed the America he
had given the North Atlantic trade
the famous Collins liner Adriatic.
Creator Of marvellous steamship
yet he is remembered only for rae
ing machine.
Just below the Steers yard to the
south Thomas and William Collier
and John Englis did their building.
Somewhere in there, too, were
tucked away Roosevelt and Joyce
and Jacob Westervelt. Adjoining
them, still further south, were the
yards OF William Webb, stretching
from Fifth Street to Seventh Street,
where the Celestial Gazele, Sword
. fish, Challenge, Invincible, Flying
Dutchman and Young America were
conceived. The winner of the Queens
Cup would have remembered all of
them.
Still, we think that most of the
time the little old lady would have
had her eye on the spot where
Fourth Street tumbles overheard.
There in her day stood Smith and
Dimon's yards--the yards where
John Willis Griftiths, father and
founder OF the modern science of
naval and marine architecture,
dreamed his Rainbow, the first clip
per, and in launching her, on a
freezing January morning in 1S45,
launched a new idea into the worlds
destiny. Not so much as a tablet
marks this historic spot. In all the
city there is not g memorial to
Grifi1ths's genius nor yet remem-
brance of the fact that 1t was New
York which contributed the Yankee
clipper to the needs of mankind. If
the winner of the Queens Cup had
asked us how we were remembering
Grifiths and the Rainbow we should
have had to tell her that New York
has forgotten--that the nation no
longer thinks of ships.
To the south of the Rainbow's
cradle, at just about Stanton Street,
were the yards Of Jacob Bell and
David Brown. 1t was here that were