Madam - there is no second

by courtesy Valencia's site on 17 Jun 2005 With the Louis Vuitton Act 4 now under way, the anecdote about the battle between the English racing fleet and the yacht America in 1851 makes good reading.

On August 22nd, 1851 Queen Victoria of England found herself surrounded by her entourage in Cowes, England anxiously awaiting word on the relative positions of the yachts competing in the Hundred Guineas Cup being sailed that very day around the Isle of Wight.

There had been no lack of rumour in the English press earlier in the week as to the reputed speed of the yacht, America, the lone American entry.

The Queen dowager, who had been privy to these rumours, had been repeatedly told by those closest to her, that England would most assuredly prevail.

After all, hadn't the Royal Navy and England's magnificent fleet of trading vessels dominated the world's oceans for three long centuries?

Besides, America was the only foreign entry vying against sixteen of England's finest and swiftest yachts.

How could any vessel, and American one at that, possibly attain victory under such dire circumstance?

History, however, who in the past has held little patience with prevailing wisdom, would prove herself consistent that afternoon.

Shortly after four o'clock, Greenwich Mean Time, a single sail appeared on the distant horizon.

In the afternoon quiet, disturbed only by a soft, dying breeze, the eyes of the royal party strained westward each vying to identify what most assuredly, ‘the first English yacht’.

Sails billowing, the yacht under scrutiny and as yet unidentified, carved a graceful arc through the water of the Solent, rounded the last mark and slid silently and triumphantly towards Cowes and her place in history.

At that moment the Queen, with that innate sense of portent fate bequeaths upon its leaders, leaned forward and whispered quietly in the ear of the Marquis of Anglesey who sat at her right, ‘Who is it in first place, my lord?’

In a halting voice the Marquis replied, ‘I'm sorry to report, Madam, it seems it is the yacht America.’

‘The yacht America’ asked the Queen, ‘Then who is in second?’ The Marquis, in a restrained voice filled with that profound respect an English gentleman reserves for his Queen, answered softly, ‘Madam, there is no second.’

So, late on that summer afternoon in the year 1851 in Cowes on the Isle of Wight, England, the America's Cup was born.