One of the results of this controversy was the sending to this country, from Scotland, of a little ten-ton racing cutter, the Madge, purely to show what capabilities lay in “a deep, narrow, lead-keeled craft with the typical cutter rig.” The only American able to beat her was the Shadow, a famous Herreshoff sloop of unusual depth, and she did it but once. Nevertheless, the controversy was not decided in the United States, and the Britishers thought it worth while to try to give us another lesson. In 1884 they launched two big cutters, Irex and Genesta, and in 1885 a third, Galatea; and Sir Richard Sutton, owner of Genesta, and Lieutenant William Henn, R. N., owner of Galatea, challenged for the America Cup.
Then the question arose: What should be done to meet them? The British cutters differed from those previously met, in that they were built for racing, not for general use—were “racing machines” instead of cruising-yachts. To meet this, a scientific designer of marine vessels, Mr. A. Cary Smith of New York, was called upon to produce a moderately deep, center-board, iron sloop-yacht on the lines of the Mischief, but much larger, and he produced the Priscilla. But while she was building there was quietly begun another yacht, the Puritan, owned and built in Boston from designs by an almost unheard-of architect, Mr. Edward Burgess, who previously to this performance had been renowned only as a student of insects!
“The stout oak keel of the new Puritan was laid upon a lead keel of twenty-seven tons, carried down into a deep projecting keel; the plumb stem, the sheer, and the long counter suggested the British cutter rather than the American sloop; the draft of eight feet six inches was greatly in excess of all of the old center-board boats, and the rig was essentially that of the cutter rather than of the sloop.”
A struggle decided that she was better than the Priscilla, and in the cup races in September she proved herself better than the famous English cutter Genesta.
THE CUTTER “MURIEL,” SHOWING THE ENGLISH
DEEP-DRAFT TYPE OF BUILD AND RIG.
Nevertheless, when the Galatea, whose challenge had been postponed until 1886, came out, the Puritan had already been distanced by an American rival, the Mayflower, practically a larger copy of herself, as Galatea was of Genesta, and, therefore, a lead-keeled center-board boat, having a cutter-like rig. Trial races showed that the Mayflower was able to beat all her beautiful predecessors, and again the British contestant was obliged to take a defeat and leave the prize in New York.
The result of this last contest (1886) was to cause British yachtsmen to abandon their old tonnage rule of measurement and adopt the far better modern one of load-line and sail-area measurement. Another challenge immediately came from Glasgow, supported by a boat named Thistle, built under the new rule; and to oppose it Mr. Burgess built the Volunteer, which differed from its predecessors mainly in increased draft and tendency toward the cutter model. She easily beat the Thistle, and the discouraged foreigners rested for some years before trying again to wrest from us the coveted trophy.
“PURITAN.”