“They tell me I have a beautiful boat,” said the challenger, Sir Thomas Lipton. “What I want is a boat to lift the Cup.”
The record of competition for the America’s Cup is a patriot’s dream. After twenty-four challenges for the trophy, first awarded to the schooner America in 1851 after she defeated a fleet of British rivals, America has never lost. In this hopelessly one-sided history, 1903 stands out as a classic confrontation. In that year the Irish millionaire Sir Thomas Lipton, by now almost as famous for his yachting as for his tea empire, was making his third try for the Cup.Read more »