On
August
22nd, 1851
Queen Victoria
of England
found herself surrounded by her entrourage in Cowes,
England
anxiously awaiting word on the relative positions of the yachts competing in the Hundred
Guineas Cup being sailed that very day around the Isle
of Wight.
There had been no lack of rumor in the English press earlier in the week as to the reputed
speed of the yacht, America,
the lone American entry. The Queen dowager, who had been privy to these rumors, had been
repeatedly told by those closest to her, that England
would most assuredly prevail. After all, hadn't the Royal Navy and England's
magnificent fleet of trading vessels dominated the world's oceans for three long
centuries. Besides, America
was the only foreign entry vying against sixteen of England's
finest and swiftest yachts. How could any vessel, and American one at that, possibly
attain victory under such dire circumstance?
History, however, who in the past has held little patience with prevailing wisdom, would
prove herself consistent that afternoon. Shortly after four
o'clock,
Greenwich
mean-time, a single sail appeared on the distant horizon. In the afternoon quite,
disturbed only by a soft, dying breeze, the eyes of the royal party strained westward each
vying to identify what most assuredly, "the first English yacht". Sails
billowing, the yacht under scrutiny and as yet unidentified, carved a graceful arc through
the water of the Solent,
rounded the last mark and slid silently and triumphantly towards Cowes
and her place in history.
At that moment the Queen, with that innate sense of portent fate bequeaths upon its
leaders, leaned forward and wispered quietly in the ear of the Marquis of Anglesey who sat
at her right, "Who is it in first place, my lord?" In a halting voice the
Marquis replied, "I'm sorry to report, Madam, it seems it is the yacht America."
"The yacht America"
asked the Queen, "Then who is in second?" The Marquis, in a restrained voice
filled with that porfound respect an English gentleman reserves for his Queen, answered
softly, "Madam, there is no second."
And so, late on that summer afternoon in the year 1851 in Cowes
on the Isle
of Wight,
England,
the America's
Cup was born. |
