On her arrival at New York, Shamrock was rigged promptly for racing, and was given several trials off Sandy Hook, in which she appeared to be a veritable witch in light airs. On September 13th she met with an accident, her steel gaff buckling until it collapsed. It may be mentioned here that her spars and gear were too light for her sails, which defect caused a loss of speed. She was finely handled by Capt. Archie Hogarth, assisted by Capt. Robert Wringe.

SLOOP TO CUTTER-SLOOP - © 1899 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC : OCTOBER 14, 1899

In the first, or schooner period of the cup contests, extending from 1851 to 1881, there was no such clearly defined struggle of type against type as was witnessed in the later races of the second period, when the English yachtsmen received some consolation for their successive defeats in knowing that their American competitors, in the struggle to retain the "America" cup, have been forced to abandon the time-honored centerboard and adopt the lead-ballasted keel.

SIR THOMAS WANTED SPEED, NOT BEAUTY

Shamrock III was launched at Dumbarton on March 17th and was immediately fitted out for a series of races with the first Shamrock which was to be used in England as a trial horse. The new boat was in charge of Captain Wringe, who had been on both the other Shamrocks though only in actual command of the second.

In 1893,the New York yachtsmen went to Herreshoff with orders for two cup-defence vessels, and he produced Vigilant, centre-board, and Colonia, a keel boat.
Colonia was owned by a syndicate composed of Archibald Rogers, Frederick W. Vanderbilt, William K. Vanderbilt, F. Augustus Schermerhorn, J. Pierpont Morgan, and John E. Brooks.

Above all, he was modest.

Roderick Stephens, Jr. (1909-1995) was a renown yachtsman of the twentieth century. Born in New York City in 1909 Stephens began his sailing career off Cape Cod in 1919. In 1928 Roderick Stephens left Cornell University after one year to work up through the ranks at the Henry Nevins boat yard on City Island.

Arthur Briscoe was a painter in oil and watercolour and etcher of marine subjects. Arthur Briscoe was born in Birkenhead on 25th February 1873, eldest child of John Briscoe, cotton broker, and his wife Eliza Ann née Trevor, who married at Chester in 1872.

Clinton Hoadley Crane had a somewhat unusual career. Beginning as an amateur naval architect, designing for himself and his friends and relations, he then established a yacht-design firm that he operated for around 12 years, and then left the profession to run the family mining business full-time. He came back 10 years later to his passion of yacht design; part-time and as an amateur.
He was as interested in motor racers as he was in sailboats, ...