page_title: James Gordon Bennett Jr.
section_title: Yachts
hierarchical_section_title: James Gordon Bennett Jr. / Lifestyle / Yachts
caption_attribution_description: English: James Gordon Bennett, Jr.'s 205-ton schooner Henrietta, built at the Henry Steers shipyard in 1861, and winner of the New York Yacht Club's Great Ocean Race in 1866.
context_page_description: James Gordon Bennett Jr. was publisher of the New York Herald, founded by his father, James Gordon Bennett Sr., who emigrated from Scotland. He was generally known as Gordon Bennett to distinguish him from his father. Among his many sports-related accomplishments he organized both the first polo match and the first tennis match in the United States, and he personally won the first trans-oceanic yacht race. He sponsored explorers including Henry Morton Stanley's trip to Africa to find David Livingstone, and the ill-fated USS Jeannette attempt on the North Pole.
context_section_description: In 1861, Bennett volunteered his newly built schooner yacht, Henrietta, for the U.S. Revenue Marine Service during the Civil War.   At the same time, Bennett was commissioned as a third lieutenant in the Revenue Marine Service (equivalent to an ensign in the U.S. Navy) and assigned to the U.S. Marine Revenue schooner Henrietta (the yacht he had loaned to the U.S. Government) beginning in June 1861.  She patrolled Long Island until February 1862 when she was sent to Port Royal, South Carolina.  On March 3, 1862, Bennett commanded the Henrietta as part of the fleet which captured Fernandina, Florida.  Bennett and the Henrietta returned to civilian life in New York in May 1862. 
  In 1866, on a bet, he won the first trans-oceanic yacht race. The race was between three American yachts, the Vesta (owned by Pierre Lorillard IV), the Fleetwing (owned by George and Frank Osgood) and the Henrietta. Each yachtsman put up $30,000 in the winner-take-all wager. They started off of Sandy Hook, New Jersey, on 11 December 1866 amid high westerly winds and raced to The Needles, the furthest westerly point on the Isle of Wight, famous for its lighthouse.  Bennett's Henrietta won with a time of 13 days, 21 hours, 55 minutes.
  He entertained guests aboard his steam-yacht "Namouna". American expatriate artist Julius LeBlanc Stewart painted several works set on the yacht.
  Bennett presented the cup and prizes at the October 14, 1873, New York Yacht Club, Cape May Challenge Cup 140-mile (230 km) regatta, which was a race from Owl's Head Point around to Cape May Lighthouse in New Jersey, and back to the Sandy hook Lightship.
caption: The Henrietta
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