A man and his boats
Roger Vaughan revisits three legendary yachts owned by Arthur Curtiss James, the last of the railroad barons and one of the men who ran America in the 1930s. But born with a fascination for the sea that would turn into a passion for sailing on blue water, James’s enthusiasm would at first exceed his capabilities…
Coronet If one of the great yachts of its day hadn’t been rigged, crewed and ready to sail at (and under) his command, it might have been different. In his wisdom, had D Willis James craftily provided Coronet as an irresistible alternative for his sailing-obsessed son? Since his graduation from Amherst in 1890 Arthur had been taking courses at New York Nautical College to earn his master’s papers. Since childhood he had been reading books about ocean voyages under sail. He was hopelessly drawn to the sea. Arthur had been given Coronet in
October 1893, just four months after remarkably pronouncing the 160-ton, 133ft, two-masted topsail/schooner-rigged
50 SEAHORSE
vessel that was without auxiliary power to be ‘an ideal type in which the young and inexperienced sailor could gain experi- ence’. Arthur, his wife Harriet and three friends had departed from the Brooklyn, New York, waterfront where Coronet was moored, for a cruise to the West Indies. As one of his guests wrote, ‘Only Jake would consider a 130ft schooner to be a perfect training vessel for the inexperienced.’ Jake is what his friends called Arthur
onboard. Superstition about leaving port on a Friday was not the only caution dismissed by the young and inexperienced Jake. It was two degrees below zero. Snow had fallen the previous evening. Weather bulletins indicated a blizzard was brewing. Coronet’s salty old Captain Crosby pronounced it a ‘dirty day’. None of that diminished Arthur’s enthusiasm for going to sea. According to the report of guests Arthur
Francis and William Kingsley, at 8am on 16 February sail was made. With double reefs Coronet tore through the Narrows at 10kt. They turned south, and in three hours logged 36nm. ‘Such a following sea there was,’ the guests wrote, ‘that Coronet seemed to be chasing herself, and was awash from stem to stern.’ They wrote of the helmsman being lashed to the wheel, of lifelines being strung. They wrote of Jake and Arthur Francis holding fast to the quarter rail, and being surprised ‘by a
perfect deluge of green water, wresting both from their hold, and hurling Jake to the binnacle which he fortunately grasped’. That night was said to be a frightful expe-
rience for inexperienced yachtsmen, several of whom prayed they might live to see terra firma again. It was tough sledding for the veterans as well. The mate had called for volunteers to work aloft, not wanting to order men to do so. With the temperature in the low 30s Fahrenheit, one can imagine all passengers were questioning the decision to willingly sail into such trying conditions. By morning the wind had abated and
the air temperature was up a few degrees, but wind against the Gulf Stream current produces a nasty seaway. The passengers huddled below until dusk. When they finally ventured on deck it was with trepi- dation. ‘Jake alone was master of the situ- ation,’ one wrote. ‘We agreed it would take a diabolical mixture and an unearthly upheaval to disturb his equanimity.’ Mr Crosby might have been Coronet’s
captain, but when Arthur was onboard he was not just the owner he was master of the yacht. Being master was a great source of pride for him, and rather than cause him to sit back and give orders it gave him licence to lead by example in all departments. He was everywhere onboard, putting in
many hours on navigation, shooting sun and stars with sextant and doing the maths
JOHN MECRAY
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