Democratic Sentinel, Volume 11, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 October 1887 — AMERICA STILL AHEAD. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

AMERICA STILL AHEAD.

Gen. Paine’s Yankee Yacht Volunteer Easily Outsails the Vaunted Scotch Thistle. .Mr. Bell’s Syndicate Craft Beaten by Nearly Twenty Minutes in a Light Wind. “ He Knows He Hadn’t Orter.” That Cap'n Bell (The British swell Who comes across the water To try to scoop Our Yankee sloop; He’s feelin’ lonesome, sorter. The cup’s been here Nigh forty year With all the world agin it, An’ there don’t float No hostile boat That’s good enough to win it. Our folks don’t go Much on the blow, But, gods an’ little Ashes! We know our biz, An' that ’ere is The art ur akimmin' dishes I We don’t care what May be the yacht— Just sot her on the ocean An’ we will show She’s plaguey slow Aside our Yankee notion. So when that swell Named Cap'n Bell Come sailin’ in his Thistle To get that cup We spunked right up— Ton’d oughter seen us bristle 1 And then we—well, That Cap’n Bell Is actin' hufty, sorter; And sad is he That he crossed the sea, For he knows he hadn’t orter! —Eugene Field, in Chicago News. Detailed Account of the Race. The seventh contest for the possession •of the America’s cup—the previous ones having been sailed in 1851, 1871, 1872, 1876, 1885, and 1886—came off at New York on Tuesday, Sept. 27, and resulted in another victory for the Yankee colors. The following detailed report of the race, sent by telegraph from New York, will be read "with interest: At 12:20 the preparatory gun is fired, and a minute later a pigeon circles twice around the Electra before conveying the joyful news. The Volunteer breaks out her jib topsail three minutes before the starting gun is fired. It is larger than the Thistle’s. At 12:30 the starting gun •booms forth, and the excitement reaches the

•climax. Both yachts are on the port tack north of the line. The Thistle goes about like a top and heads for the line on the port tack. The Volunteer follows a, hundred yards astern. At 12:80 t)tj a short, sharp blast from the whistle of the flagship announces that the Thistle is over. Then every steamboat that can toot, toots her level best The whistle that announces the passage of the Volunteer over the line is lost in the volume of sounds, but it was given at 12 :34 ‘58%. Then all the steamers got in motion, and scores of paddle-wheels and propellers ohurn up the waters as the steamers ■tart after the yachts and close in upon them. At 12 39 the Thistle goes about on the starboard tack, crossing the bows of the Volunteer ■and compelling her to keep off a little. The Volunteer follows suit at 12:41. They are smart jockeys, though, on the Volunteer, and they got even for the little trick—all fair, though - that the Thistle played on them. At 12 :44 the Volunteer, which had been crawling to windward of the Thistle, went about, forcing the Thistle to follow suit at 12:46, the Volunteer gaining both the wind and the windward position. The Thistle runs into a calm right in the neck of the Narrows, which the Volunteer escapes by standing in close to the Staten Island shore. The Thistle hangs there for a few minutes. It is most exasperating luck for the Thistle, and, to make it worse, there goes up a joyous chorus from nearly every steam whistle in the fleet. The Volunteer, carrying a good breeze, while her rival is becalmed, goes sliding through the Narrows, and it begins to be •observed that the Volunteer is no slouch of a. boat after all in light weather. The steamers crowded around the luckless Thistle, notwithstanding the frantic efforts of those on the bridge of the Electra to get them to hold back They cannot well help it; the Narrows is like ■the neck of a bottle, and a large fleet going through must converge there. At 1:05 the Thistle catches a faint breeze and is wafted out of her unfortunate predicament. But, in the meantime, the Volunteer has obtained a lead which looks much like half a mile. Thus, early in the race, the tables are turned and the Thistle has a stern chase, and no boat ever got in existence behind that saucy cocked-un stem ■of the Volunteer that did not find the chase a long one. Once out of the Narrows, the Thistle gets a fair share of the breeze and bends over to it a little, small jets of spray dashing away from the bows and falling in slender white furrows •on either side of her. The conduct of the steamers at this point is outrageous. Several steam right across the bows of the Thistle and give her the benefit of their wash, as though she was not getting beaten badly enough already. The fleet-footed Volunteer continues to open the gap between her and the Thistle, and besides lies closer to the wind. At 1:30 the wind backs to the southeast, a shift that helps the Volunteer, enabling her to lay her course nearer to the Southwest Spit. She drops the •black cutter suddenly; there is no change in

the situation to cheer the Scotchmen, nothing to give them the faintest hope that they may yet pluck victory from the jaws of defeat It Is a procession, with the white sloop at the head of it and the cutter at the tail. The proud motto of the Thistle, “None touch me with im-

punity,* avails nothing. They laugh at it on the Volunteer. It is a ‘cold day* for the Scotchman, and many expressions of sympathy are heard for pretty Mrs. Bell, who, on the Mohican, witnessed the mournful spectacle. The Volunteer passes to starboard of buoy No. 10 at 2 r 21.03, the Thistle passes at 2:36 :15. She gets only a few consolatory toots, for most of the steamers are following in the wake of the victorious Volunteer, and the Thistle gets some of their wash. The Volunteer slips along with such an easy, graceful motion that it deceives the observer as to the speed she is making. The Thistle, too, moves easily and gracefully, keeling over a little more than does the Volunteer, and making fully as beautiful a picture; but somehow, as some one on board the Electra puts it, “she does not get there like the other boat." From buoy No. 5*4 the yachts are able to reach, with sheets eased off a bit, to buoy No. 5, off the point of the Hook. Thereafter

they lie their course close hauled to the Sandv Hook light-ship. The wind is found to be a little fresher after the yachts get outside the Hook, and the sea is a trifle lumpy. The Volunteer keels over more, but yet her lee rail is always several inches above the water; the white foam that starts from her shoulder gets broader, and the waves make nervous little jumps at her sides in a vain attempt to get over her lee rail. The Volunteer rounds the Sandy Hook light-shin at 3-42:12. There is a scampering of men on her decks. Sheets are eased off, and with the wind abeam, she is off on the home stretch at a pace that bids defiance to any pursuer, and the Thistle, hull down, shows a white streak of sail approaching the light-ship. It was 4:01:15 when the Thistle made the light-ship and eased off her sheets for the run back, taking down her baby jib-topsail and replacing it with a larger one. The Volunteer gained on the Thistle from buoy No, 10 to Sandy Hook lightship 3 minutes 21 seconds ; from the start to Sandy Hook lightship the Volunteer gained 20 minutes 35% seconds. The race home is easily told, as it is devoid of every aspect of a race, so far behind is the Thistle. They are so sure of victory on the Volunteer that they take things somewhat easy, and it is not until she gets some distance from the Sandy Hook light-ship on the home stretch that she sets a larger jib top-sail. The wind is nearly abeam. She rounds Buoy No. 10 again at 4:36:14. For the rest of the way home it is a run .before the wind. The main boom is swung out to port and the spinnaker boom dropped to starboard, but there is no hurry displayed in breaking out the enormous spinnaker. When it is set. the Volunteer swoops along with accelerated speed. Onward she sweeps with su"h an escort as never yacht had before. She crosses the finish line at 5:28:16%. It is no section of pandemonium, but pandemonium itself, that greets her. Everything that can make a noise does its level best, and guns flash and bang right and left, as though some naval fight were underway. Peerless Volunteer. Well has she won the title. With scarce as much as a little tug to escort her, the Thistle swoops down on the finish line. Beautiful she looks as she g ides swiftly before the breeze, with every stitch of canvas drawing and her spinnaker setting perfectly. It is hard to understand how she got so far behind. There is only one explanation of it—the fault is not with the Thistle, but the Volunteer happens to be the better boat. It is hard work to keep the finish line clear for the Thistle, but it is done after much exertion, and the Thistle crosses at 5 :45:52%, beaten as she was never beaten before. But she is greeted with abundance of noise if there is any consolation for her in that. The Scotchmen acknowledge the salute by cheering, but they are forced and feeble cheers. Thus, the Volunteer won by 19 min. 23% sec., corrected time. The Volunteer’s time in the run from the Sandy Hook lightship to the finish line was 1:46:14*4, and tne Thistle’s 1 .-44:37%, the Thistle gaining 1 min. 36 *£ sec. over this part of the course.

THE VOLUNTEER ROUNDING THE LIGHTSHIP.

THE THISTLE AT THE START.

THE YACHTS' COURSE.