America (yacht)
 The Yacht America on a lithograph
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The America was an American schooner yacht with a green wooden hull. Yacht America is the namesake of the America's Cup, which is still held today . It won the first One Hundred Sovereigns Cup in 1851 .
history
The ship was built by the founder of the New York Yacht Club (NYYC), John Cox Stevens , son of John Stevens , with the help of a financial consortium consisting of himself as chairman and Edwin Augustus Stevens , Hamilton Wilkes, George L. Schuyler, Colonel James Alexander Hamilton and commissioned by John K. Beekam Finlay. The exclusive purpose was to participate in the race for the One Hundred Sovereigns Cup around the Isle of Wight , not the 100 Guineas Cup as is often wrongly handed down.
John Cox Stevens commissioned the shipyard of William H. Brown, 12th Street, East River in New York to build the yacht, which Georg Steers had designed based on the lines of the very fast pilot schooners Mary Taylor and Moses Grinell . The construction cost of 30,000 US dollars required by the shipyard for a 140-ton displacement yacht initially stunned the consortium, as they could get a 1,600-ton tea clipper for 70,000 US dollars on the East River on South Street in New York at the time. The consortium member George L. Schuyler therefore negotiated a contractual clause with the shipyard that enabled the consortium not to have to accept the new build or to pay for it if a yacht of the same size could succeed within 20 days of delivery by the shipyard, the America to beat in a race. The shipyard should bear the costs of the race.
It was also determined: Should the new yacht be brought to England (at the owner's expense) and be beaten there by a yacht of the same size, then it could be returned to the shipyard. Under these conditions the high purchase price was accepted. On May 17, 1851, the America was completed and faced the comparison race with the larger sloop Maria by John Cox Stevens, which was then the fastest yacht in American waters. America was clearly beaten and the members of the consortium were relieved not to have to remove the new building. But time was running out and the details for the races in England had been agreed with the Commodore Lord Wilton of the Royal Yacht Squadron. An agreement was reached with the shipyard on a purchase price of US $ 20,000. The America was not quite as fast as Maria , but under the circumstances, the more sensible alternative.
After some remaining work, the America cast off on June 21, 1851 in New York for the North Atlantic crossing. She went on the sails of the Mary Taylor . Own sails and other regatta equipment was stowed below deck. She sailed at high speed, her best Etmal was 284 nautical miles, which corresponded to an average speed of 12 knots. America reached Le Havre in 20 days and a few hours, despite having had five days of calm in the Atlantic . After a three-week overhaul at a berth that was specially cordoned off, the yacht sailed to its anchorage off Cowes .
One Hundred Sovereigns Cup
The race was carried out by the Royal Yacht Squadron (RYS) as a fleet race and 15 out of 18 registered British yachts started. The traditional course set out in the sailing instruction was called The Queen's Course , in honor of Queen Victoria . The One Hundred Sovereigns Cup won the America on August 22, 1851 53 miles at 20:37 local time 20 minutes ahead of the 14 British participants (Aurora, Arrow, monitor u. A.). The astonishment of the queen who watched the sailing race from her royal yacht is recorded. When she asked who came second when the leading America passed the royal yacht and dipped her national flag three times in greeting , her companion replied: “ Your Majesty, there is no second! ”(German:“ Your Majesty, there is no second! ”) The America was led by skipper and helmsman Richard“ Old Dick ”Brown , the navigator and tactician (afterguard) Horatio Nelson“ Nelse ”Comstock and the watchman Robert Underwood. On board were the English pilot and a crew of 14, including the engineer brothers Edwin and John Cox Stevens.
The Americans were very proud of the prestigious victory and a legend was born about the founder of the One Hundred Sovereigns Cup . Since Queen Victoria traditionally donated a trophy to the Royal Yacht Squadron every year for the winning yacht in the race on The Queen's Course around the Isle of Wight, the misunderstanding arose that this trophy was also given by her. This is wrong, because the annual Queen's Cup was only announced for club members, in 1851 for cutter yachts with a water displacement between 50 and 100 tons. John Cox Stevens was not a club member and America displaced 170 tons. Rather, Lord Anglesey donated the One Hundred Sovereigns Cup to the Royal Yacht Squadron , which got its name from the jeweler because of the purchase price. As Lord Uxbridge he was a founding member of the RYS in 1815 and in 1851 he was still an active sailor with his cutter yacht Pearl . The cup had no bottom and was driven from Britannia metal, weighing 134 ounces and 27 inches high. The supplier was the London jeweler Robert Garrard. At that time, no challenge cups were won, but the winner could keep the cup.
America's Cup
On his return to New York, John Cox Stevens donated the One Hundred Sovereigns Cup to the New York Yacht Club and with this award founded the America's Cup, which was first held off New York in 1870 between the yachts Magic (USA) and Cambria (Great Britain) (Winner: Magic ).
Further use
Following the win, John Cox Stevens sold the yacht to Lord John de Blaquière for $ 25,000. He had them rebuilt in order to be able to use them for cruises in the Mediterranean . In 1853 it was bought by Lord Templeton, who had it restored and modernized in the Pitcher shipyard. She was renamed Camilla . In 1863 she returned to her homeland. She served as the training ship for the United States Naval Academy . In the American Civil War she served on the side of the Northern States. From 1873 it was used again for racing and was used here until 1901. After changing ownership several times, she returned to the Naval Academy in 1921 and was brought to Annapolis . There they were left to decay. It was stored in a shed, the roof of which collapsed under the snow load in 1942 after very heavy snowfalls and buried the ship under itself. After the end of the war, a close examination of the hull showed that only the wood of the keel was okay. A reconstruction was therefore not carried out and the hull was scrapped in 1946.
Replica 1987
A true -to-the- original replica was produced for five million US dollars and opened the sailing regatta of the 26th Olympic Games in Savannah . The replica of the America was designed by Olin Stephens from the yacht construction company Sparkman & Stephens (New York). It was launched on May 3, 1987 at the Goudy & Stevens shipyard , East Boothbay , Maine , USA.
Replica Whydah of Bristol
In Bristol 2 replica of America was completed and after the former slaves vans and pirate ship: was founded in 2000, a 1 Whydah named.
The former charter ship has been owned by the Brigantine Falado von Rhodos eV association since 2014 and offers interested groups of the Bündische Jugend the opportunity to learn seamanship under expert guidance .
technical description
The America was designed by the North American shipbuilder George Steers and was designed as a schooner with some new design features. The two masts inclined slightly towards the stern were a new feature . The keel was borrowed from the clippers , which helped the ship to achieve unprecedented speed. In 1901, the German yacht designer Max Oertz ( Germania , Meteor IV ) paid tribute to the special design features of the yacht in a lecture to the Shipbuilding Society:
“In America , the water lines were extraordinarily sharp and hollow, the center of gravity of the deplacements was exceptionally far aft and the section of the sails also deviated the yacht from all common standards. If the excellent condition of the sails also contributed to the success, the sailing characteristics of the Americas in the race around the Isle of Wight in 1851 were so astounding that America was rightly seen as the starting point of an entirely new direction can be used in yacht building, both on this side and on the other side of the ocean. With the most diverse variations, namely influenced by measuring methods, the principle of sharp water lines was maintained until the end of the 80s, even after people had learned to hang heavy lead keels from the yachts and after remarkable progress had been made in terms of construction and rigging. "
The deck was planked with oak. Cedar decorations had been added. Below deck there were four owner's cabins, a saloon with six berths and the crew quarters . In contrast to the British , pure linen sails were no longer used, but cotton sails sewn lengthways, which were much easier to repair. As with all schooners, the sails were trapezoidal and manufactured by RH Wilson, New York and Port Jefferson, Long Island. Overall, it was a two-masted light schooner rig designed by William H. Brown. The schooner sail was on the front mast, the mainsail on the rear . For bowsprit out was internal and external jib rigged. Besans were not planned.
successes
- May 3, 1851 to July 27, 1901: 51 regattas, 12 victories
literature
- Detlef Jens: The schooner America. In: ders .: The classic yachts. Volume 3: Racing Ships through the Ages . Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft, Hamburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-7822-0958-8 , pp. 34–41.
- Riccardo Magrini: Ships . Kaiserverlag, Klagenfurt 2006, ISBN 3-7043-1422-6 .
- Ottmar Schäuffelen: The last great sailing ships . Delius Klasing Verlag, Bielefeld 1986, ISBN 3-7688-0483-6
Web links
- Sail plan and hull lines America
- Photo America (1889)
- Images America . klaus-kramer.de
- Photo: America (1987) rear view ( Memento from November 28, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Royal Yacht Squadron: The Yacht America ( Memento of the original from October 16, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved January 27, 2009.
- ↑ a b c d e American Heritage Magazine: ALFRED F. LOOMIS: “Ah, Your Majesty, there is no second” ( Memento of July 24, 2009 in the Internet Archive ). Accessed February 8, 2009.
- ↑ 1851: THE ORIGINS OF THE AMERICA'S CUP ( Memento of December 25, 2010 in the Internet Archive ). Accessed December 29, 2010.
- ↑ America's Cup: AC-CLOPAEDIA - TIMELINE ( January 16, 2007 memento in the Internet Archive ). Retrieved January 24, 2009.
- ↑ Google Maps. Retrieved July 5, 2020 (de-US).
- ↑ Whydah OF BRISTOL. Retrieved on July 5, 2020 (German).
- ↑ Max Oertz: About sailing yachts and their modern design, presented in 1901 to the Shipbuilding Society, accessed on February 8, 2009.
