CLASSIC BOAT SEPTEMBER 2016 63Above from left:
Henrietta,
Fleetwing and
Vesta.
Facing page:
Bennett in 1860,
serving as a second
lieutenant in the US
navythemselves by the fire were probably the rowdiest of all.
Their ringleader was unquestionably Gordon Bennett Jr.
Bennett was 25 at the time and just getting in to his
stride as a playboy and hellraiser. In later years he was to
become famed for his high jinks, which included
regularly driving a coach and horses around his New
York neighbourhood naked. He was also notorious for
perpetrating one of the biggest high society faux pas of
all time when, after getting engaged to socialite Caroline
May, he turned up at one of his future parents in law’s
parties blind drunk and proceeded to urinate into the fire
in front of all of the guests – including the in-laws and
his fiancée. It was this kind of behaviour that led to the
phrase ‘Gordon Bennett!’ being coined around this time.
These exploits were all before him, but the trio of
drinkers took their lead from Bennett, and, once suitably
squiffy, talk turned to yacht racing and the merits of the
various vessels they owned. Lorillard had just purchased
a brand new centreboard schooner, Vesta. He argued
that this 106ft (32.3m) shallow draft, light displacement
boat was far superior to Osgood’s Fleetwing or Bennett’s
Henrietta. He stated that these heavier, narrower vessels
would be no match for Vesta over a long course. The
argument was further inflamed by an article in Bennett’s
New York Herald, urging yachtsmen to be a little more
adventurous, exhorting America’s “smooth water
gentry” to “trip anchors and start out on a cruise on
blue water. Get off your soundings, trust your sea legs
for a while, reciprocate the visits of your English cousins,
visit your own coast, go to South America, try Europe,
call on the Sultan; or, if you have got the pluck,
circumnavigate the world, then come home and write a
book. It will perpetuate your memory, reflect lustre on
your deeds, and resound to the honour of your country.”
As the evening wore on, the trio got more and more
tiddled and their arguments became increasingly