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Many thanks to Ken Deeley for sending along these photos of the port of Oswego in 1890. I’ll take the panorama below and divide it into three parts, left to right.
Yachts shown gathered below in Oswego for an event of the Lake Yachts Racing Association are (l to r) Oriole, Bison, Lotus, Lolantha, Yama*, Merle, Maud B, (unknown identified launch), Vreda*,
Nadia*, Cinderella, Loona, Gen. Garfield, Aileen*, Samoa,
Nancy, Bennett, Erma, Berve II, Kelpie*, and Alert.
* (from Royal Hamilton Yacht Club)
Ken writes: “In 1884 Canadian and American yacht clubs on Lake Ontario formed a yacht racing association that consisted of four Canadian and American clubs.
They held what was called cruise circuit regattas and in 1890 Oswego was their destination, where my photo comes from some unknown photographer who took the assembled fleet American and Canadian assembled in the outer harbour of Oswego. The photo is about 14 inches long 4.5 high from a glass plate. The amazing thing is across the top of the page was glued diagonally the name of every yacht with the exception of the stern of the tug in the lower left. HA, HA, you tug enthusiasts [are out of ] luck again unless you could name it for me.
The list of yachts has enabled me to name a lot of sailing yachts from other photographic collections around the Great Lakes. The American clubs were Oswego, Rochester, Buffalo, Crescent, and Sodus Bay. Some of these clubs were not members of the LYRA but their yachts raced anyway. Canadian clubs were Royal Canadian, Kingston, Royal Hamilton, Queen City, and Toronto Yacht Club.”
The tugboat whose stern is shown above is likely Charley Ferris, built 1884 at the Goble Shipyard in Oswego and (?) abandoned in Duluth in 1932.
For more photos from the same collection, click here.
And finally, there was once a lighthouse, dismantled in 1932, in the inner harbor of Oswego. This photo would have been taken from the high ground over near Fort Oswego looking southwest.
For previous tugster posts featuring Oswego, click here, here and here. There are others also if you type Oswego into the search window on the left side of the blog.
For more 1890s history of LYRA clubs, click here.
Here are some posts about Lettie G. Howard.
Want to join the crew for a sail to Gloucester for the 2016 schooner race, be part of the race crew, or help sail the 1893 schooner back to NYC’s sixth boro?
You’d be crew in training, integrated into watch-standing along with her professional crew.
On the return, she stops in New London for the Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival. And all the while, you’d be supporting the good work of South Street Seaport Museum, which has many other unparalleled events coming up in the next few weeks.
Here are the specifics on ticket prices, dates, and itineraries:
NYC to Gloucester | 8/29-9/2: $800.00*
Gloucester Schooner Race | 9/4: $160.00
Gloucester to New London | 9/5-9/9: $800.00
New London to NYC | 9/11-9/13: $480.00
*Sail the first leg and join the race at no additional cost!
To reserve your spot, email: lettieghoward@seany.org
The first and last photos here come from Hannah Basch-Gould; all the other have been taken by Will Van Dorp, who on these dates will be gallivanting to francophone Canada in search of Champlain’s dream.
I could not make the Sunday heats, so here are two more of my photos of the British entry showing how these boats perform . . .
above the surface with most of the hull. Approaching shore requires caution . . . but thanks to Frank Hanavan, here is a set of photos showing what happened along the Jersey shoreside, Morris Canalside . . . on Sunday. The New York race over,
one by one the boats were hooked and
lifted above and beyond the watery confines,
lowered carefully for a landing
in the parking lot at Liberty Landing Marina, and
disassembled,
prepped for the road, and
loaded into the containers that will likely travel beyond the sixth boro along I-80 and I-90 into Chicago for events starting June 10.
For these bright Sunday photos, many thanks to Frank Hanavan, whose website here shows what he spends most of his time engaged in.
More photos from the event soon.
So were the words of a bold attendant to Queen Victoria when the royal yacht was bested by a strange-looking upstart vessel from the former colonies called America. As the Queen revealed her ignorance of the rules, I too must confess that–like a an inhabitant recently retrieved from a remote island and watching a MLB or NFL game for the first time–I was largely unaware of what I was seeing. No matter, I enjoyed it and hope you enjoy these photos.
First, the muster. If you want the instructions, click here.
It certainly appears the Japanese boat here is being towed. Is this to demonstrate the foiling or train for it? Here’s an explanation of how these 3000-pound vessels fly .. . or foil.
If it seems that all the boats are identical except for the sponsors, you’re right.
The logo at the top of all the mainsails is for Louis Vuitton. Can someone explain why a trunk maker chooses to sponsor this race? Isn’t it somewhat like an Indy car race sponsored by Victorias Secret, Epifanes, or Penguin Books?
No matter, notice the throngs along the shore and the ledge of the building to the left? I think of the third and fourth paragraphs from Moby Dick:
“Go from Corlears Hook to Coenties Slip, and from thence, by Whitehall, northward. What do you see?—Posted like silent sentinels all around the town, stand thousands upon thousands of mortal men fixed in ocean reveries. Some leaning against the spiles; some seated upon the pier-heads; some looking over the bulwarks of ships from China; some high aloft in the rigging, as if striving to get a still better seaward peep. But these are all landsmen; of week days pent up in lath and plaster—tied to counters, nailed to benches, clinched to desks. How then is this? Are the green fields gone? What do they here?
But look! here come more crowds, pacing straight for the water, and seemingly bound for a dive. Strange! Nothing will content them but the extremest limit of the land; loitering under the shady lee of yonder warehouses Battery Park City will not suffice. No. They must get just as nigh the water as they possibly can without falling in. And there they stand—miles of them—leagues. Inlanders all, they come from lanes and alleys, streets avenues—north, east, south, and west. Yet here they all unite. Tell me, does the magnetic virtue of the needles of the compasses of all those ships attract them thither?”
The answer to that last question, it seems, is Yup!
I’m intrigued by this power cat . . . the timing vessel. Is its work called telemetry? Anyone tell me more about what instrumentation it contains? I’m wondering if this will be the official timer for the larger boat race next year in Bermuda.
I’m posting these photos earlier than usual today in hopes that they may prompt anyone who missed the race yesterday to brave the weather and watch today.
I’ll post some more tomorrow.
All photos by Will Van Dorp, who is grateful to Gerard Thornton for this platform. Click here (and scroll) for a photo of Eric R. Thornton.
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