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End of Day One-The Great TransAtlantic Race, 1866 by Donald Demers, oil on canvas, 34 x 60 inches (left to right) Vesta, H enrietta, Fleetwing
Only in New York City could boasting over dinner and drinks result in a TransAdanric ocean race between 100-plus-foot schooners, one that cam e together in just seven weeks and rook place in D ecember, no less! In October 1866, Pierre Lorillard, Charles Osgood, and James Gordon Bennett Jr. agreed to ante up $3 0,000 each, more than the price of any one of their respective yachts, in a winnertakes-all race across the Adan tic. Lorillard was the owner of the 105-foot centerboard schooner Vesta; Osgood owned the 106foot Fleetwing; and Bennett wo uld sail in his 107-foot H enrietta and take the prize on C hristmas D ay with a winning time of 13 days, 21 hours, and 55 minutes. It was a hard winter race sailed in adverse conditions. Despite a race course that covered more than 3,000 miles (from Sandy Hook, New Jersey, ro the Isle of Wight), the three schooners finished within hours of each other. The race was not witho ut tragedyFleetwing lost six crewmembers overboard in heavy seas.
Driving Hard, Henrietta, The Great TransAtlantic Race, 1866-Day Two
by Donald Demers oil on canvas, 30 x 40 inches SEA HISTORY 131 , SUMMER 2010
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