"WORLD'S BEST LOSER"

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 83, 5 October 1931, Page 7

"WORLD'S BEST LOSER"

ROMANTIC QUEST

With the passing of Sir Thomas Lipton there disappears one of the bestknown figures of the British race. For wherever the conversation has turned to Lipton in the past three decades the query has always been the same: "Will he win tho America Cup?" He had tried for that cup over a period of thirty years, but all five times that he matched his Shamrocks with the American defenders the persistent Irishman met with defeat. His persistence had been in face of great difficulties, problems of design and seamanship, and at the cost of great sums. It has been estimated that he spent from £500,000 to £750,000 on the pursuit of the cup, and one American critic put down the total expenditure on the last race of the series as round about £1,000,000 by the time the Shamrock and the American defenders were built and completed, their voyages in trials and cup race. Sir Thomas Lipton was born in Glasgow of Irish parentage in 1850. He left school when he was 12 years of age, and began work at 2s 6d per week, and at 15 he arrived in New York, where he saved his first £100 and started on his way to prosperity. Perhaps he felt that tho country which began his career in business should crown his career in sport. Ho was indefatigable, and the story is told that when he established himself in his shop in Stobcross street, Glasgow, ho used to sleep ' beneath the counter and "work twentyfour hours a day studying how to please customers who came into tho shop.' It was a city which years later conferred ' the freedom of the city upon the man who had toiled there as a working grocer, and who went on to found one of the greatest and earliest British fortunes from trade. ' _ His stores spread all over England, and his tea plantations in Ceylon made his name nationally known, but outside ■~ of:his business Sir Thomas's great pas- . sion was yachting. HIS PASSION. That passion and the money to indulge it led inevitably to the quest, of the America Cup. The trophy had been absent from England since 1851, when the yacht America, commanded by Commodore John C. Stevens, took the silver cup from the open regatta of the Boyal Yacht Squadron, a cup which later was presented to the New York Yach,t Clob. There, in 1898, it still remained. It was at the suggestion or the Prince of Wales, afterwards King Edward VII., that Sir Thomas Lipton f first challenged for the America Cup. Newly knighted, Sir Thomas saw fields of glory unfolding before his gaze. Three years before Lord Dunravon had challenged for the silver pitcher, but his attempt met with disaster, and he withdrew his yacht after the third race, and made some serious charges, which later were disproved. Tho affair left an. unpleasant atmosphere, and it seem- ' ed probable that some time would elapse before another race was sailed. Sir Thomas was not a famous yachtsman ' at the time, and even in England was ■ not particularly identified with the sport, though he was devoted to it. The owner of a largo steam yacht, he had done rery little actual sailing. Indeed, he has never been noted as a skipper, and although he has been on board his Shamrocks during numerous races, he never took the helm. L»te in. the summer ofj 1898 the New York Yacht Club received a cable from the Boyal Ulster Yacht Club of Belfast, It announced the entry by Sir Thomas Lipton. of a ■field in which he was to become tho best-known Briton. ' The first of the Shamrock dynasty was a yacht with very flat hull, with long ends and a keel hardly more than a fin. She met the Columbia, built by J. Pierpont Morgan and C. Oliver Iselin and failod in two races out of three, being disabled in the second. Five races had been scheduled, but the rest were never sailed. TAILURE AGAIN. The attempt of the green-hulled Shamrock 11., made in 1901, met with the same fate, the Columbia winning three straight races, though in .tho final contest, tho closest ever sailed in tho history of the series, the Shamrock 11. actuaHy crossed tho lino first but lost ' on corrected time. The difference was 41 seconds. In 1902 Lipton announced that he would challenge again. "In ' thus desiring an opportunity of making * a, third attempt to obtain possession of the America Cup," he wrote, "I hope I may not be deemed importunate or unduly covetous of the precious trophy so long and so securely hold in trust • by the New York Yacht Club." Shamrock 111., like her predecessor, Shamrock L, was designed by William Fife, junr., and her trials showed her to bo ono of tho fastest boats over built in England, but in the races for the silver pitcher she was beaten by tho ' Eelianco on all three occasions. More than 50,000 people witnessed the first ■ race, and genuine regret was felt, both in Britain and the United States, when ' the third Shamrock failed. The next attempt by Lipton was delayed through the outbreak of the World ' War. The Shamrock IV., designed by Charles Nicholson, was entered in 1914, but as she'crossed the Atlantic—like the original America the challengor must cross the broad waters on her own keel —the war broke out and tho yacht had to wait six years before she saw the racing course.. Known as the ugly duckling of the series, she nevertheless camo nearer to realising Sir Thomas's ambition than any of tUo other boats, ■ for she won the first two races from the Resolute only to' lose tho next three. In the first race tho Shamrock had a sailover, the Eesolute's throat halyard parting, Sbamroeta■■won tho second race by 2min 26aei;, while the'third was won by Eesolute by 7min Isec, the fourth'by 9min sSsec, and the fifth by J3miTi 45sec. Last year Sir Thomas male his finnl attempt. This time ho received liberal