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Show - : I Strange Fate Befalls Cup Yachts After Their Racing Days 1 I The America Serves as Museum After Thrilling Adventures Adven-tures in Blockade Wrecked on Fortune For-tune Hunting Cruise Rv FRANK. L. CURTIS TT THEN S'-nmrock IV n undergoing YA h t final grooming for the Cap races "at Jacohs's shipyard in City Island tTO month?; ago Bob Jacobs, who know 'em all, Irom the old Amrrlcn down, noticed a working schooner heading into the Httle harbor under sail and power. Her graceful Unci wore reminiscent of better days. Hob !ooked again, and recognized the famou old Puritan, defender of the America's Cup In 1583. when she twice defeated the cha! longer Genesta What becomes of the Cup yachts? Con? as the snow of yesteryear are most of those glorious old vikings the challengers ar.d defenders of the hundred guinea pewter rr.ug cjueen Victoria offered as a prize seventy sev-enty years ago for a race around the Isde of I ' i 1 IWijiht The modern boats, built for speed without regard to seaworthiness, ha-. e been broken up for the value of their lead, spir and sails Some of the sturdy old ones. Ilke the Puritan, are still afloat and in hones: trade. One, at least, and it would oe untair to (ell her name, Is engaged in the whiskej smuggling business, and was Identified by a friend ot the writer down in Delaware Bay obouc three weeks ago. Most famous of all. the America, from which the Cup dorive,s its name. Is now laid up in LawlevV shipyard In Boston. Shi was ofTered for sale recently, and would prrbably have gone into the Azores-New Bedford trade had not a syndicate of yachtsmen of the Eastern Yacht Club bought her with the Intention of archorlng her in the Charles River, or at MSrblehcad, els a yacht museum. The America ivis designed by George Steers, builder of famous pilot boats and her orlirtnal owners were George I- Schuyler. John C and Edwin A Stevens .lames A Hamilton and Hamilton Wilkes She was a schooner. 88 feet on the waterline, 22 foot beam and 11 foot draft. She was the fastest boat in this country and In lft.i her owners sent her to England to sail In the races there. The story of her victory over the entries of the Pov.al neht Squadron has been Old many times. The prize she won was the Queen's Cup. i'nro knowr. as the America s Cup. in lRr7 the owners of the trophy. . t the succession of Mr Sohuvler. transfern 1 it to the custody of the New York Yaeht Club with an Instrument known as the "oriclnal deed of gift," making it r perpetual International urlzc. J Once a SlocUi-.de Runner. Th America was a blockade runner In the. i Civil War and was Bunk In the St John's jj River, in Florida, by a Confederate gunboat. After the war she was raised and was sailed A as a yacht for years under various owners. 1 All the America's rivals in the Isle of Wight A race are out of existence now. They wt re sturdy old vessels, and many of them went j Info pilot boat or fishing service. ' Herreshoff's wonderful sloop Resolute, -j wrich defended the Cup this year, calls to ,4 mind the old Resolute, one of the finest of I --, old schooner yachts. Sho sailed in the yH race for the America's Cup which the Magic A won in 1870. Cambria, the British chal- ,a lenger. finished tenth After manv years service as a yacht tho M Resolute was sold for trade. Like many 2 other vessels of her class, she went into the -1 Azores-New Bedford service There are a ym number of sailing ships engaged in tho Im-jl Im-jl migrant 6ervlco between tho Nov England A port and tho Azores and Capo Verde Islands. J They bring over Portuguese and Spanish J Immigrants, who are employed In tho mills ij and cranberry bogs on Capo Cod during the .3, busy season, and carry them homo when Jji the season closes The old Resolute is still Sg in this trade and tho America might have been If the Boston syndicate had not bought J her. w v The first defender, ?daglc. Is one of tho few .4 Cup boats that have not been broken up. She '.jj is a centreboard Bchooner and until s few 'S years ago was a coaster and fisherman along $m the Florida coast. She was last heard from m In New Orleans, where she is in trade and S still serviceable. -J! lz 1871 the Livonia raced the Columbia, the only American yacht until this year that lost a race. Columbia was disabled and the tappbo defended the Cup In the two subsequent subse-quent races. All these boats went Into trade and Sappho was lost at sea. The next challenger was the Countess of Duffcriii in 1876 She was a Canadian schoOner from the Great Lakes and was badly beaten by the Maifelcir.c The Countess Count-ess of Dufferln returned to the lakes and palled as a yacht there for years Eventually Eventu-ally she was broken up. The Atalanta. another Canadian boat challenged In 1 SSI rh" sailed tho Mischief. Some cars after the rac she was burred In Chicago, where she was In service a; a yacht Did Not Belie Her Name. The Mischief was a yacht for some time mlllng from Boston. She was finally converted con-verted into a working schooner and her subsequent sub-sequent career was dubious She was In t-vuble for smuggling oa several occasions and more than lived up to her name She loo lias b-en broken up. Sir Richard Sutton challenged with the Gcne5ta in 1883. Sh was a cutter built especially for racing, hut was bi n ten by tho Puritan After the race Sir Richard took her home and lived aboard of her until his death HI? widow lived on the boat until her death a few vears ago The Genesta was unfit for trade and was broken up. The Puritan after being used as a var-hr for years was converted into an auxiliary schooner and Is encaged In tho Azores trade, it was Hie that put h. at City Island whi n tho Shamrock was In dry dork there Sho hept her sloop rig and was sold at auction In New York several years after the race with the Genec.ta Commodore J Malcolm Forbes hought her fhe.i for $13 500 The Prlscllla was one of the boat3 that sought the honor of defending the Cup in 18S5, but was not chosen She was used by Commodore A. Cass Canfield of the Sea-wanhaka Sea-wanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club for several years He altered her for the trials In 1S86 but she was again unsuccessful Sho was sold later to Robert Lenox Bel nan am1 named the Elma George H Wor'hing-lon Wor'hing-lon of Cleveland finally bought her and had her on the Great Lakes until a few years ago. when she was sold for Junk and convened con-vened Into a "party" boat She Is now at Sheeps-head Bay and takes out fl'hlng panics She went down to tho races this ) car. but only a few of the old timers rec gnlzed her In her disguise as a motor-boat. motor-boat. The first boat built especially to defend tho Cup was tho Pocahontas, launched In 1SS1 Sho was a terrible failure, and afterward be-camo be-camo a Ashing boat. In 1SS6 Lieut. William Henn. R N challenged chal-lenged with tho cutter Galatea Sho was defeated de-feated by the American 6loop Mayflower. After tho race Lieut Henn kept the boat la Dartmouth harbor. In England, where he lived on her until his death. Capt. Dan Bradford, who sailed her against the Mayflower, May-flower, was in command until about twelve years ago, when Mrs Henn died and the Calatea was broken up. The Mayflower was one of two boats built to defend the Cup, tho other was the Atlantic, At-lantic, a failure. The Mayflower was sold to Commodoro E. D. Morgan and was In the trials for the races In 1887. Later sho was converted Into a schooner and was jsed as a yacht for many years. 'itGH In 1 008 Rye adventurous oung men chartered char-tered her to seek treasure In n sunken Spanish Span-ish galleon In the Caribbean Sea Tho modem mod-em Argonauts were R. A. Derby. New-York. New-York. Guy H. Scull, who was a Depjtv Police Po-lice Commissioner under Arthur Woods S II Noycs and Haydon Richardson ot New-York New-York and S S Boylston of Baltimore The party sailed from New York In Sep-trmper Sep-trmper on the old Mayflower which had been converted Into an auxiliary schooner and was owned by the Southern Exploration Explora-tion Company They carried a crew of seven men Asld" fiom admitting their destination destina-tion was the Caribbean, the treasure hunters surrounded their mission with secrecy. For two weeks they met with fair weather and their hopes for a successful i ovage ran hlsrh. But two hundred miles east of Wettings Wet-tings Island they ran Into a terrific West In dian hurricane which was one of the worst storms eve; encountered In those waters. Capt C Harding In describing tho Mayflower's May-flower's experience said that for a day and a night tho stanch little vessel scudded c.long with bare poles before tho wind tossed about like a cork by the enormous v.aves. which at times swept aver ber decks and carried away all movable objects. When day broke th wind was howling and the storm had greatly Increased At noon It reached the height of Its fury. Several Sev-eral times the Mayflower, struck by huge Waves, was thrown on her beam ends and twice was almost overturned Her topmasts both times were under water as she lav on her side hut by a miracle she succeeded in righting herself 11 v. as a terrifying experience for nil on board, and the treasure hunters, some of I k-y - . 'S -6- Xn. Jhtzh HAS ONE -MAST from The O- tuMLHGm SHAMROCK N , 'm vt7 M. Ihe OTHER, from T5e Vm WOULD BE DErEKOtR. CON5TITUTIOK whom had never seen a storm at sea momentarily mo-mentarily expected to see the little schooner founder That afternoon, while the Mayflower May-flower was pounding her way through the sea. her mainmast went by the board and her foremast snapped off about twenty- feet above the deck The once famous defender of the America's Cup had become a hopeless derelict In this condition shr was sighted next morning b the steamer Advance of the Panama Railroad Company, which lay to and tried to give aid Finding it Impossible to lower a boaf and unwilling to waste any more time, the Advance steamed on her way to New York. Almost Yielded to Despair. s the smoke from the Advance's funnels faded away on the horizon the hope which had run high In the party of adventurers sank again and they cave themselves up for losl Just when It semed that the poor oil Mayflower would founder and that her crew hid endured all suffering humanly possible. : steamship Pan from Daiquiri to Paltl-more Paltl-more hove In sight and rapidly bore down on the sinking yacht The Ran enme as near as she darei). but like the Advance was unable to lower i hoat She endeavored to throw a line over the Mayflower and rig s breeches buoy, bur aP tf no avail. In each attempt the line fell short. Then the captain of the Ran. although al-though he realized he was unable to give aid until the seas subsided, signalled that h would stand by until the end with the view of picking up what men he could after th-s Mayflower went down. Taat afternoon the Hlppolyte Duniols. Ia4tn with bananas from Port Antonio. Jamaica, Ja-maica, to Baltimore, steamed up and Joined the Ran. mance-iv rlnc about the shlp- wreCKed vessel and trying to throw a lino ahoard her By rkllful searranshlp Capt. Danlalson hrought his ship to windward of the yacht and shot a line across her forward deck. A dozen eager hands seised It and a cheer v.ent up on the Norwegian ship when the rope was made fast to the Mayflower's broken mast A breeches buoy was rigel and man after man was dragged to r.afetv on the steamer's deck After three sleepless rights and days rhey were a haggard look-lag look-lag lot The gallant old Mayflower, which had managed to keep afloat until her crew was rescued, sank almost Immediately. The Atlantic, which was built as Cup def Tder and eliminated by the May flower. Was Sold to Wilson Marshall and Clinton Parnum Seelev, the latter one of the heirs of P T Barnum She also was converted into a schooner and was sallerj as a vacht for several years, when she w-.as broken up Kair.fi Got One of Them. In 1 S 7 the Volunteer defendeJ 'he Cup against the Thl.-alc Tho challenger went back lo Scotland, where sho was owned for some time by Sir James Bell Ho sold her to the Emperor of Germany, tho then Kaiser William II.. pd her name was changed to Meteor. She was the first of an illustrious line of lhat name Tho Kaiser soiled her often in English waters and It was sho who soiled a dead heat with tho A verna This race and the dead heat In the tiilrd race between the Resolute and Shamrock las', month are the only two on record of two boats starting and finishing in exactly the same time. Cy a curious coincidence (lie time difference at start and finish in both races was" nineteen seconds. When the Kaiser .ought tho Meteor 11. One of the Famed Old Racers Smuggles Whiske) While Commnoplace Trade Has Become the Lot of Others---Modern Ones Scrapped h turned the other boat over to the princes HfSj and she was used n9 a training jra ht for them The Meteor 1. the old Thistle waj a Watson nut r. bulll Oil the Clyde, The Volunteer was lengthened after the race with Thistle and 'urned into a SChoOB 6 er. She Is now a trader in the Azores ser- LbbbI Four yachts were built to defend the Cup when Lord Dunravon challenged with tho 1 a I Valkyrie II In 193 One of these, tho mSj'1 Colonla, now the Corona, a schooner yacht Hfi and tho property of Cleveland H Dodge. Is the only surviving representative of the old WiM 9u. footer sloop class. The Corona Is it HUj feet on the waterline. She was out at the HM races this year. Bn Another candidate was the Pilgrim. A sstlfc freak fin keel boat built by a Boston sv n- LKm dlcafe headed by Bayard Thayer and Gen. BSP C H. Taylor. She had a cigar shaped hull HBp with an enormous overhang. 128 feet over Hssv a'l After the trials her fin keel was taken LaVif off and she was converted into a power boat HaM and went Into trade BE$f A third aspirant to race the Va!krle was LsKrl the Jubilee, ouilt for Gen. Paine. She was Lfffl a combination of fin keel and centrecoard sbbmI another freak. For several years the Jubilee wgs laid up In Burgess's yard in rffl Marblehead. jhc was eventually broken BssTi' up K-Jj "!he successful defender Vigilant, which WV beat the Valkyrie in three consecutive races. Br1 was afterward sold to George Gould, who , LssMsi took her abroad the following year with a '!- I Hank Haff. her skipper She raced In Brit- Hawi! Ish waters bul was not notably successful. A winning only three out of seventeen starts. 1 ?he returned tc this "ountrv In 1S93. E. A. Willnrd had charge f her and she was used as a trial boat against Oliver Iselin's IV- LH fender that year She has been broken up. In 1S95 VglkyrlB III. another Watson IV sloop, was Lord Dunraven s challenger Sh s .ed against the Defender This contest w?s marred by the British Earl, who pro- W ti - erj the rare on the ground that De- t l.-.oer's ballast hod been tampered witn. F J The charges were thoroughly investigated ' M a nt. disproved. AJ Corroded by Salt Water. Defender was a fast boat, but In one sense gjgfj a freak, being built of a combination .if aKS steel aluminum and bronze, which corroded Sl-i badly She virtually ate herself up in tho Sgii salt water and was broken tip. All Sir H Thomas Upton's Shamrocks have beeo 4t broken up The challenger shamrock iv designed by Charles Nicholson and notable Sl for her npoon shaped hull, is now helnc de- Br' molishe,! at Jq cobft's yard in City Island Three seventy footers were built to de- MX: fend the Cup in 1SS7 One of them, owned Bfcj by J. Rogers M ..w.ell w ,s n.-rned Shamr.H k I Sho has been converted Into a power hoat M and took parties to tho races last month fTsM On account of her name a report was elreu- fr j lated that sho was one of Upton's Sham- tdH rcks The only Upton Shamrock nowr tlfl afloat Is the 23 meter boat used as a trial llH horse for Shamrock IV n the opinion of experts this stanch craft Is worth more th in WlM the Shamrock IV.. Resolute and VanlUe put together. K sVb The schooner yacht Ka tours, built by Her-reshoff Her-reshoff for Commodore Robert E Tld In 1914. has the njast of Shamrock III for her mainmast and her foremast was the mast of the Constitution, unsuccessful candidate l to defend the Cup In no,. Another mast of one of Uptons Shamrocks serves as fia M pole for the Atlantic Yacht Club at Sea t3fcf where Sir Thomas had his steam yacht Vic. toils during tho races this year tMT The mast of the Columbia Is a flag pole in Queensboro Bridge plaza. ,n Bh1 The Columbia. Constitution InfIepen(J .npft Mhomas W Eavvson', unsuccessful boao and Bella nee have been broken up The Resolute Will probably lay up in Herreshof K yard in Bristol R. I until another cSSfclnS uiSSf Van,Ue 18 now ,aid up 3 S5 H- |