THE SAILING-MATCH OP ALL NATIONS.
The result of the grand contest at Cowes Regatta for the prize of All Nations was not the only feature of considerable interest in the day's proceedings. As we stated in our Postscript last week, the proba- bility that the Yankee yacht would beat the best of what had hitherto been considered the best yachts in the world, raised an extraordinary ex- citement among the naval amateurs : our Queen herself; "mistress of the sea," partook of the feeling ; she was present at the race, and since the race she has been on board the successful America. The report of the Times furnishes abundant materials of descriptive interest. " Until within the last few days, no Englishman ever dreamed that any nation could produce a yacht with the least pretensions to match the efforts of White, Camper, Ratsey, and other eminent builders. In the Yacht .Lost for this very year, there is an assertion which every man within sight of sea-water from the Clyde to the Solent would swear to—that' yacht-build- ing is an art in which England is unrivalled, and that she is distinguished preeminently and alone for the perfection of science in handbag them. From the Royal Cork Club, which was founded in 1720, to the Royal London; founded in 1849, there are seventeen yacht dales- in various parts of the United Kingdom—ten English,- four Irish', two Scotch, and:one Welsh ; and not one of them had ever seen a foreigner enter the lists in the annual matches. It was just known that there was an Imperial Yacht Club of St. Petersburg, maintained, it was affirmed, by the Imperial Treasury, to en- courage a nautical spirit among the nobility' ; and that some ten or eleven owners of yachts at Rotterdam had enrolled themselves as the Royal Netherlands Yacht Club; but, till the America came over, the few who were aware of the fact that there was a flourishing club at New York did not re- gard it as- of the slightest consequence-, or as at all likely to interfere with their monopoly of the glory. of the manliest and most useful of all sports. The few trial runs the America made after her arrival proved she was pos- sessed of great speed, and that the owners were not so little justified as at first they had been thought in offering to back an untried vessel against any yacht in our waters for the large sum of 10,0001. or for a cup or piece of Pate. As the day of the Royal Yacht Squadron's grand match drew near, the entries became numerous; and 1851 will be celebrated for the largest number of starters for the Derby and for the 100/. cup respectively that were ever known, so fat as I can gather. The conduct of the Americans since their arrival in the Solent had been bold, manly, and straightforward ; qualities which Englishmen respect wherever they are found, and love to see even in an opponent."
In the memory of man Cowes never presented such an appearance as on Friday the 22d of August. A large portion of the peerage and gentry of the United Kingdom had left their residences, and forsaken the sports of the moors, to witness the struggle. There must have been a hundred yachts lying at anchor in the roads ; the beach was crowded, from Egypt to the piers; the esplanade in front of the Club thronged with ladies and gentle- men, and with the people inland, who came over in shoals, with wives, sons, and daughters, for the day.
Eighteen yachts entered as competitors ; the largest of which was Mr. G. IL Ackers's three-mast schooner the Brilliant, 392 tons; and the smallest Mr. J. L. Craigie's cutter Volatile' 48 tons. Nine of the yachts were of above 100 tons, and nine were of less than 100 tons. The America's burden is 170 tons.
"At ten o'clock the signal-gun for sailing was fired ; and before the smoke had well cleared away, the whole of the beautiful fleet was under weigh, moving steadily to the East with the tide and a gentle breeze. The start was effected splendidly, the yachts breaking away like a field of race-horses; the only laggard was the America, which did not move for a second or so after the others. Steamers, shore-boats, and yachts of all sizes, buzzed along on each side of the course, and spread away for miles over the rippling sea : a sight such as the Adriatic never beheld in all the pride of Venice ; such, beaten though we are, as no other country in the world could exhibit, while it is confessed that anything like it was never seen even here in the annals of yachting. The Gipsy Queen, with all her canvass set and in the strength of the tide, took the lead after starting, with the Beatrice next, and then, with little difference in order, the Volante, Constance, Arrow, and a flock of others. The America went easily for some time under mainsail, (with a small gaff-topsail, of a triangular shape, braced up to the truck of the short and slender stick which serves as her maintopmast,) foresail, forestaysail, and jib • while her opponents had every cloth set that the club regulations allow. She soon began to creep upon them, passing some of the cutters to windward. In a quarter of an hour she had left them all behind, except the Constance, Beatrice, and Gipsy -Queen, which were well together, and went along smartly with the light breeze. Once or twice the wind freshened a little, and at once the America gathered way, and passed ahead of the Constance and Beatrice. Another puff' came, and she made a dart to pass the Gipsy Queen; but the wind left her sails, and the little Volante came skimming past her with a stupendous jib, swallowing up all the wind that was blowing. As the glorious pa passed under Osborne House, the sight was surpass- ingly fine; the w ole expanse of sea from shore to shore being filled as it were with a countless fleet, while the dark hull of the Vengeance, 84, in the distance at Spithead, towered in fine relief above the tiny little craft that danced around her ; the green hills of Hampshire, the white batteries of Portsmouth, and the picturesque coast of Wight, forming a this framework for the picture. As the Volante passed the America, great was the delight of the patriotic; but the nautical cognoscenti shook their heads, and said the triumph would be shortlived ; the breeze was freshening, and then the sprightly cutter must give way, though she was leading the whole squadron at the time.
" At 10.30 the Gipsy Queen caught a draught of wind, and ran past the Volante ; the Constance, America, Arrow, and Alarm being nearly in a line. At 10.45 the breeze freshened again for a short time, and the America passed the Arrow, Constance, and Alarm, but could not shake off the Vo- lante nor come up to the Gipsy Queen. The Sandheads were rounded by the Volante, Gipsy Queen, and America, without any perceptible change in point of time, at eleven o'clock, the last being apparently to leeward. Again the wind freshened, and the fast yachts came rushing up before it ; the run from the Sandheads being most exciting, and well contested." Off Noman's-land buoy, the Volante was first ; then the Freak, Aurora, -Gime Queen, America, 8s.c. ; the other six were "staggering about in the rear,'" some of them hauling their wind and returning to Cowes in despair. "At this point the wind blew somewhat more steadily, and the America began to show a touch of her quality. Whenever the breeze took the line of her hull, all her sails set as flat as a drumhead, and, without any careen- ing or staggering, she walked along past cutter and schooner, and, when off Broiling, had left every vessel in the squadron behind her—a mere ruck— with the exception of the Volante, which she overtook at 11.30. As soon as she passed the Volante, she very quietly hauled down her jib, as much as to say she would give her rival every odds, and laid herself out for the race round the back of the island."
The weather now still further freshened. "The Yankee flew like the wind-; leaping over, not against, the water, and increasing her distance from the Gipsy Queen, Volante, and Alarm, every instant. The way her sails were set evinced a superiority in the cutting which our makers would barely allow ; but certain it is, that while the jibs and mainsails of her antagonists were 'bellied out,' her canvass was as flat as a sheet of paper. NO foam, but rather a water-jet, rose from her bows ; and the greatest-point of resistance —for resistance there must be somewhere—seemed about the beam, or just forward of her mainmast ; for the seas flashed off from her sides at that point every time she met them. While the cutters were thrashing through the water, sending the spray over their bows, and the- schooners were wet up to the foot of the foremast, the America was as dry as a bone. She had twenty-one persons on her deck ; consisting-of the owners, the crew, cook, and steward, a Cowes pilot named-Underwood, and some seamen whom had been lent her by the Surprise, a London-built schooner yacht; now at Cowes Beads. They nearly all sat aft, and when the vessel did-not require any bundling, crouched down on the deck by the weather bulwarks." From this point it was plain- that nothing could live with the America. Even accidents- seemed to be unimportant to her. Off Dutmose Head, her jib-boom broke short off, and threw her up in- the wind. A quarter of an hour nearly was thus gained by the vessels she bad distanced; but they never came up to within two miles or so of her lee-quarter. The Aurora, Freak, and Volante, were the only boats that preserved a chance; and if the wind had fallen, the Volante; with her light tonnage, might have stolen in and perhaps have Won. But the -Volante met with the same accident that befe the America ; her jib-boom-wee carried away by the Freak, in tat*. ing ; and from that moment the chanee of the-" boatman's pet" vanished, At 5.40, the Aurora, the nearest yacht, was fully sevew-and-ashalf miles astern, and the Freak- a mile further behind; the rest being "nowhere."
As the Needles were approached, the Victoria and Alberts with the Royal standard at the main and the Lord Admiral's fiagat the fore, was seen steam- ing. round from the North-west, followed by the Fairy and the little dock- yard-tender. The Fairy was signalled to go and bring tidings- of the race, and she quickly executed the commission. At 6.4 the America got in a line with the Royal steamer. " Though it is not usual to recognize the presence of her Majesty on such occasions as a racing- matoh,—no more, indeed, than a jockey would pull up his horse to salute the Queen when in the middle of his stride,—the America instantly lowered her ensign, blue with white stars; Commodore Stephens took off his hat, and all his crew, following his order and example, remained with uncovered heads for some minutes till they had passed the yacht,--a mark of respect to the Queen not the leas- becoming because it was bestowed by Republicans."
Off Cowes, on every side was heard the hail, " Ia the America first ? "- The answer, " Yes." "What's second ? "—The reply, " Nothing." As there was no wind, the time consumed in- getting up from Hurst Castle to the winning-flag was very considerable, the America's arrival first-not having been-announced by gun-fire till 8.37. The Aurora, which slipped up very rapidly after rounding the Needles, in consequence of her light tonnage and a breath: of wind, was signalled. at 8.45; the Bacchante at 9.30 ; the Eclipse at 9.45; the Brilliant at 1.20 a. m. August 23d. The rest were not timed. Thus the America made good all the professions of her owners. A protest was preferred, on the ground that she did not go the proper course, outside the Nab' Light ; but it was overruled by the-Committee ; and the " cup of All Nations " was presented to Commodore Stephens and his brother, the owners of the America, after a dinner in the club- house that night. Mr. Abbot Lawrence was present, and acknowledged the compliments paid to his country : it was but the child giving a lesson to the father—if we bought the America here they would try and build something at New York which should beat even her.
On Saturday evening, the America proceeded to Osborne, at the desire of the Queen ; and her Majesty with Prince Albert and the children went on board, conversed with Commodore Stephens, and expressed admira- tion of the skill of his countrymen as shipbuilders and-sailors.
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