New-York tribune. [volume], October 19, 1919, Page 4, Image 62

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Lip?on and His Yacht Will Try Again
"I
Special Cable Service.
Neto York Tribune
(Copyright, 1919, New York Tribune Inc.)
LONDON, October 18.
TE had many a try and many a defeat," said Sir Thomas Llpton in an interview to-day with
The Tribune correspondent, "but thia time I think I have got them."
Sir Thomas thus indicated .the optimism with which he regarda the chances of Shamrock IV
in the coming America'a Cup races off Sandy Hook.
"I don't think there is any doubt that the challenge will be accepted," he said, "nor that this will
be my time. Of course, the best boat is going to win, but I can say my boat is going to turn the trick.
I have every confidence in Captain Burton, who will sail Shamrock. He is an amateur, but has sailed
more than a thousand races and has established a famous record.
"Shamrock, as you know, was on her way to America when the war began, and has been laid up
ever since. But Mr. Nicholson cabled me before he sailed from America that she has had the best of
care and is in the best possible condition. That is all I want to know.
"The American cup defender was built before the war, about the same time as the Shamrock, so
there won't be any advantage In point of age for either boat.
"I have sailed .Shamrock IV up and down the coast of England and am convinced she Is the best
boat afloat. I've another Shamrock which I will send across some time before the date set for the races
and which will act as a trial horse." .. t
Sir Thomas is anxious to know as early as possible what date will be set for the races next year.
"There is one thing I want to.say as emphatically as possible," he continued. "That is the mag?
nificent treatment I have always received at the hands of the New York Yacht Club. I have always
been given the best of everything. Perhaps in the past there have been a few mistakes, but they have
generally been in my favor. I have sailed yachts in a great many places, but nowhere have I been better
treated and there is nowhere I would rather sail than under the
auspices of the New York Yacht Club."
The Irish yachtsman is uncertain when he will go to America
He may not go until shortly before the races next year.
There will be a lot of British money up on Shamrock TV nejct
year. She has been much of a mystery to the British public, but
the secrets of her construction ?are now coming out.
The
Resolute:
WH/Ctf IVO/V
//WS or
THSTWZLVS
je/JCSS //V
""X /Q/S /7
<S/e
TtfOMAS ^
AHO M/G
Shamgo?k/v
/??r?V/7ArCJSr ?-?_
*v*/ch ru/s vero &stc/r 7W?- coA/7i^Aro?-/s #/ /SO 3
Perseverance Has Won Him Riches
Will Perseverance Win Him Races?
/ / TT 'D GIVE my la?t shilling to
* win the America's Cup."
These words were
ipokcn In 1914 by that host of
f-enJa'ity, the saltiest of gay sea
ogs, Sir Thomi-'fl Johnstone Lipton.
Picture a rather tall gentleman,
whose skin has been whipped brown
by the winds, whose flowing mus
tache, tinged wj*.h gray, cannot dim
the Imtre of an Irish smile, who
walk? with just the hint of a sailor's
roll an-i who<*e eyes carry the half
roguish twinkle of eternal youth,
and that is Sir Thomas.
At the tim* he spoke of his last
?hill ng tbfl Shamrock IV was in mid
Atlantlc, being convoyed hither by
the Lipton steam yacht Erin, where
?ri September it was to have com?
pete.'] against the Resolute, a little
bundle of nautical invincibility, off
Sandy Hook/
It was to have been the fourth
; Liptonian attempt to take back to
! the tight little island the most cele
'> brated international yachting tro
] phy. In 1899, again in 1901 and In
! 1903 Sir Thomas and his especially
? constructed Shamrocks, with their
J natty skippers, had fulled to "bring
? home the bacon."
I
War came. Like a peal of thun?
der it rumbled across Europe and
echoed to England. The Briton
dropped his sports and tea to don
khaki and shoulder a gun. Yacht
racing and other alTablo diversions
were sent into limbo to await that
day when a nation that had never
learned to love aporta or to play
them as England and America did
?"rasw^*^4?^4?S^^^?
77,?:Co?uH0/sis ts/?t ae?xo? o/-ve99 '??o /So/. &**,,**& s*Q? ^?c*
! should have been taught an indls
' pensable lesson.
i After the armistice the Irish bar
? onet again challenged. But it was
too soon, the New York Yacht Club
I thought, and the challenge was tem
| porarily rejected, with the promiso
; that in 1920 a similar overture
j would no doubt be given not unfa?
vorable consideration.
That time has arrived. The New
j York Yacht Club is in receipt of .Sir
i Thomas Upton's latest challenge,
and in duo course arrangements will
have been completed cgain to defend
the cup which the America won off
Cowes, England, fn the historic race
against the English in 1855. Theie
will be no deviation from the usual
provisions for the race, which means
that the two yachts will race under
tlio rule;! laid down in the deed of
I gift rather than the universal rules
which have been rather assiduously
espoused by .Sir Thomas.
With nothing to interfere, Sir
Thomas Lipton's fourth attempt to
lift the America's Cup should be
sailed next summer, probably in
June, with Shamrock IV?which the
Irish sportsman already has desig?
nated as his yacht ? competing
against the Resolute, which was com
; pleted in 1914 to defend the cup.
j
i The Man
Sir Thomas Upton is in his sixty
? eighth year. Burn in 18.11 of poor
| Irish parents, pursuing a nomadic
career in his youth which brought
I him over the seas and into America,
where, as he said, he loarned the
value of "shrewd enterprise," before
j reaching the ago of liRy he had
i amassed a tremendous fortune, estl
i mated at $50,000,000, in the tea,
coffee, candy and packing business,
! and his charities had caueed him to
| be known as an international figure.
It is an epic task he baa chosen,
| that of building a yacht in England,
! bringing it to America under its
own sail, creating it swift, yet sea
: worthy, and competing against tho
' honest nnd fastest creations
brought out of the drafting
1 rooms of American designers. Three
, times a Shamrock has come over
tho seas, and three times a Co?
lumbia or a Reliance has turned her
? back?the last time in 1903?but
those repetitivo disappointments
have served only as a stimulus to
Sir Thomas's ambition.
This dominating impulse has be
, come so much a part of Sir Thomas's
I interesting career that once in 1901,'
j when business troubles pyramided
i and stockholders of the tea compa?
nies complained, one of them after a
; stormy meeting shouted:
I "Never mind the company. Bring
i back the cup!"
A love of the sea is always inborn.
It is man's harkback to the atavistic
or the amphibious. Early in life,
j when he was a messenger boy for a
I stationer in Glasgow, Tommy Lipton
I exhibited this surpassing love of the
sea and spent such time as he could
conveniently spare among the piers
and wharves where boats that sailed
the seven seas came to port
He said then nnd he declared often
thereafter that some day ho would
own "tho finest, fastest sailing yacht
afloat," and /certainly .since his
, flnancea have warranted an effort he
has spared neither pains nor money
in the attempt to consummate his
1 ambition.
After working as a messenger boy
| in Glasgow for several years young
! "Tammas" disappeared, and the next
? his parents heard of him he was in
; America, where he had gone down to
Charleston during the reconstruction
period. Eventually he shipped to
I New York, and after studying
j Yankee methods here and in New
: England he returned to his native
j heath. There he induced his father
? to open a provision shop, the trepida
! fions of the elder Lipton being over
! come by his son's arguments to such
an extent that he ventured ?80 in
the alluring picture that Lipton
the younger verbally painted.
The provision shop was a success.
Young Lipton worked night and day
to make it so.
From such humble beginning was
there created a chain of stores that
encircled tho globe, there being in
l'.?bO a total of 420 Lipton establish?
ments in England and the colonies,
.sixty of which were in London.
No end of interest centred in
the construction of Shamrock
IV, which was launched at Ports?
mouth Harbor in May, 1914, and
which was promptly dubbed Lip
ton's "nautical crime."
The designing and construction
of the challenger by Charles E.
Nicholson had been shrouied n
mystery, and it was not until she
slid down the ways that t.ngli:.n
yachting enthusiasts perceive?! that
?ill British building precedent hf.d
been shattered and that an English?
man "had dared to do something.
original."
The Shamrock
Recently Charles E. Nicholson on
a visit to the United States was pre?
vailed upon to tell of the construc?
tion of the Shamrock IV. He saM:
"The challenger is the first boat
ever built in England under the
American measurement rule. She
differs greatly from the Resolute at.d
Vanitie.
"Shamrock, although a composite
boat, is virtually a wooden one She
has a multi-skin planking of thn c
thicknesses. The two inner are
diagonal, and the outer one
runs fore arid aft. She has no tim?
bers or frames, in the ordinary
Bense, and but few wob frames,
widely spaced. Some of these
frames are of steel and others of
aluminum. Instead of ordinary
frames she has longitudinal wood
stringers.
"Her deck is very light, of p'y
wood covered with canvas. M I
her deck beams ere of wood. Her
steel sheer strake and dec* stringer
plate are those usually worked il 0
composite yachts. The challenger
came across the Atlantic without
any damage or straining of the
slightest.
"Her mast, instead of being steel,
is a hollow wood one, and it n >t even
braced with steel. It is the b ggest
hollow wood spar ever made.
"She has a much fuller bow then
the defender and is longer keeled
than she is.
"Her aluminum frame? are n
perfect condition. Si me * "
aluminum deck fastening? will bave
to be renewed, but that is all. il'r
giant wooden mast was exai
just in time to save it; her sails are
in good condition and will be used
again."
The America's Cup contmitt**?
which includes L. C. LeJyunj,
man; E. I). Morgan, C. Oliver Ise?o,
W. B. Duncan, C. Ledyard Blair,
Dallas B. Pratt and Grenville Kane,
have intimated that the cup in ?H
probability will be defended \?S
the Resolute or the Vanitie. In vie*
of the fact that in 1915 the Res-J
lute won nine and the Vanitie thr>e
of twelve races in which they W***
entered, tho defence is obviou.-ly u?
good hands.
But whichever way the race goes
the return of Sir Thomas Johnston?
Lipton in the r?le of challenge; will
be welcomed.