RACING JAY GOULD
In July, 1883, Jay Gould was highly elated over the speed of his beautiful steam yacht “Atalanta,” which had several times met and distanced Edward S. Jaffray’s wonderful “Stranger;” but, on the twentieth of that month, his happiness, as the story is told, was very suddenly dashed.
After a hard day’s work, the jaded Jay boarded the “Atalanta” and began to shake out his pin-feathers a little, figuratively speaking. But before his boat had gone far on her run to Irvington, the bold manipulator of Wall Street made out a craft on his weather-quarter that seemed to be gliding after the “Atalanta” with intent to overhaul her. He had a good start, however, and sang out to the captain to keep a sharp eye on the persistent little stranger, so unlike the “Stranger” he had vanquished.
“I wonder what it is!” he exclaimed to a friend beside him.
The friend looked long and carefully at the oncoming boat, then turned a quizzical eye on Jay, remarking:—
“In a little while we can tell.”
“Will she get that close?”
“I think she will.”
It was not long before the strange boat was abreast of the “Atalanta,” and Jay was then able to make out the mystical number “100” on her. He rubbed his eyes. Those were the very figures he had long hoped to see on the stock ticker, after the words “Western Union,” but that day they had lost their charm. Before long he was not only able to see the broadside of the “100,” but also had a good view of the stern of the vessel, whereon the same figures soon appeared and nearly as soon disappeared, as the “100” bade good-by to the “Atalanta,” which was burning every pound of coal that could possibly be carried without putting Mr. Gould or some efficient substitute on the safety valve.
“He seems to be out of humor to-night,” said his coachman, after leaving his employer at the door of his Irvington mansion.
The mystic “100” which, by the way, was just one hundred feet over all, was merely the hundredth steamer built by the Herreshoffs, but on her first trip up the Hudson she attracted as much attention as the “Half Moon” of Henry Hudson or the “Clermont” of Robert Fulton. She was the fastest yacht in the world, and was beaten on the river by only one vessel, the “Mary Powell”—four and one-half minutes in twenty miles.
Although Mr. Gould was considerably irritated at his defeat, he knew a good thing when he saw it, and the next year he ordered a small steam launch of the Herreshoffs.
The “100” made a great stir in Boston Harbor. Later on she steamed through the Erie canal and the Great Lakes, and made her home with the millionaire Mark Hopkins.