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boating writer Thomas Fleming Day. She was so out of control, he added, that ‘one could not but feel sorry for her crew in their desperate effort to master the monster and keep her on course’. The boat showed heartening speed in


smooth water, but her habit of making wild surprise broaches in any which direc- tion was discouraging. It was also slow, trailing Columbia and Constitution by many yards and sometimes a mile or more. Lawson desperately put command in


the hands of the rising star of Massachu- setts amateur yacht racing, Charles Francis Adams, yet it took only a day for Adams to make his excuses and go ashore (it was rumoured that he made a pierhead leap as she was towed past a point of land). After seven races off Boston and


Newport, with no hope that he would be allowed to compete in the New York Yacht Club eliminations, Lawson with- drew Independence from competition and gave his experimental yacht an industrial revolution version of a Viking ship’s funeral by having the all-metal hull broken up on a Massachusetts beach. That is where Lawson’s wild ride of an America’s Cup adventure ended after just three months of sailing, many worries, repeated disappointments and his personal expendi- ture of $205,000 (some $5 million today). The story of Independence does not end


here. There are three more chapters. The first concerns her immediate influ-


ence on the America’s Cup. Nathanael Greene Herreshoff saw enough of her to not favour using scow features in his own next Cup boat, Reliance. He was, how- ever, opposed by the boat’s primary financial backer, Oliver Iselin, who had observed Independence up close while sail- ing on Constitution in 1901 and was sure the scow type had redeeming features. Reliance ended up looking somewhat


like Independence, at least forward of the mast. Her long, snubbed scow bow extended 6ft farther forward than the bow of her opponent, Shamrock III (which the defender handily beat). Herreshoff later made his disagreement very clear in con- versations and autobiographical notes. ‘To carry out Mr Iselin’s wishes,’ he wrote of Reliance, ‘she favoured too much of the scow type, above water, to be a good type of big yacht. She was very powerful.’ That adjective was not necessarily a


compliment. Although (as Olin Stephens himself observed) Nat Herreshoff’s biggest contribution was strong structures, the great Reliance was pressed so hard that on one rough day, her lengthy metal snout dived into a wave and came back up with a 5in-deep dent. The second extra chapter of the Indepen-


dence story concerns the New York Yacht Club’s and Nathanael Herreshoff’s doubts about scow designs for reasons of safety, seamanship and good racing. Herreshoff wrote a new measurement rule to discour- age such boats. The club thought so well of the rule that it not only adopted it but


44 SEAHORSE


He came, he saw, unfortunately she sank. Not always the most modest of men, when Thomas Lawson commissioned the world’s largest ever sailing ship, and only recorded seven-master, he named her after himself. The seven-masted 395ft Thomas Lawson


ended her short career tragically off the Isles of Scilly in December 1907. Built in the steam age, in an attempt to show that sail could still be competitive, she was launched with no main engine; however, in the first example of power-assisted sailing, she did feature a small engine at the base of each mast to raise her enormous amounts of canvas – in total over 40,000ft2. She also carried a crew of just 18 when a similar- sized steamer required anything up to 50. The Thomas Lawson was carrying


2,225,000 gallons of paraffin when, at the end of a very rough Atlantic crossing, navigation errors led to her anchoring within the treacherous waters between Bishop Rock and the Isles of Scilly. By now only six of her sails were usable. The tiny St Agnes lifeboat reached her but the captain would not leave


his ship. He did take a local pilot onboard, claiming that he did not consider himself in any danger, hailing the lifeboat crew that ‘with our tackle we could ride out any storm on the American coast’. ‘But alas, not here’, one of the lifeboat crew later wrote. The following night, as winds reached over


90mph, the ship’s cables parted and she was driven helplessly onto Shag Rock, west of Annett, capsizing and throwing her crew into the sea. Next morning floating wreckage suggested to those on St Agnes what must have occurred and the gig Slippen set out in huge seas to search for survivors. Those who could be seen on Annett, including the pilot, were dead by the time the weather had made a landing possible; later one seaman was found on the island but subsequently died. Slippen continued to search and the


master and engineer were later found alive. Frederick Hicks, son of the drowned pilot, also swam a line out through breaking waves but all of the remaining crew had drowned, apparently having climbed desperately up into the rigging before the ship rolled over.


Above: when not designing unusual craft for his benefactor, Thomas Lawson, Bowdoin B Crowninshield put down the lines of some very beautiful as well as sea-kindly smaller yachts including several popular one-designs. The first of his 17 Half Raters (above) went afloat in 1908 and immediately proved successful; none of the original boats survive but the yachts are back racing again courtesy of Artisan Boatworks based in the wooden boat capital of Maine – although this fine example was built and launched in the UK. Opposite: a short life for a fascinating yacht… Independence’s dinghy rudder and more modern hull sections stand out clearly, as does a reverse taper keel with its lower VCG


elected Herreshoff an honorary member. Known variously as the Universal Rule,


the Herreshoff Rule and the New York Yacht Club Rule, it produced numerous seaworthy, popular and healthy racing classes with letter designations. The many Universal Rule boats that are still sailing include a 50ft Q boat in which I frequently sail out of the Indian Harbor Yacht Club, at Greenwich, Connecticut. Many American harbours today have


slightly smaller Rs plus the popular S-Class one-designs. But the best known of the Universal Rule boats remains the J-Class of boats of approximately 130ft overall length that sailed for the Cup four times between 1920 and 1937. Many Js, including several that were


recently built, continue to race and cruise, often crossing oceans in comfort and safety. Anybody who admires a J-Boat has Nat Herreshoff and the New York Yacht


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