East Cowes Author Decodes the Island's Most Famous Yacht Race

Friday, 16 August 2024 15:58

East Cowes author, Magnus Wheatley, has uncovered one of the last great secrets of the America’s Cup in his new book ‘There is no Second’. That is the definitive account of the first race around the Isle of Wight on the 22nd August 1851.

The crux of the book centres around the phrase “Ma’am there is no second” which was the response from a hitherto unknown ‘signal-master’ onboard the deck of the Royal Yacht Victoria & Albert – as the Queen enquired as to whether the yachts were in sight, who was first, and who was second.

Regarded as the ‘Holy Grail’ of the America’s Cup, his book details the socio-political environment around the race with the poor showing by the American delegation at Prince Albert’s Great Exhibition and the remarkable encouragement of Queen Victoria towards the gentleman sailors of the yacht America that she visited the day after the race and thus changed the barbed rhetoric from the British media towards the New World. The start, perhaps, of the ‘special relationship’ between Britain and America.

After two years of research involving the Royal Archives, the Royal Navy Archives and eventually to the National Archives in Kew, London where the author opened Naval records that had not been opened in 173 years, the mystery was solved. “It gives me goosebumps even now talking about it,” commented Magnus, “I could feel history.

It was a very rewarding moment after months and months of searching and investigative journalism to finally uncover the names of the two ‘Yeomen of the Signals’ that were onboard Victoria & Albert that momentous day in 1851.” With no ship’s muster recorded, a tip-off from the Naval Archives provided the breakthrough, namely that crew wages were sent back to nominated family members to avoid ‘consumption’ by the crew-members and hence a detailed list was recorded of those payments. Alongside numerous other vessels of Her Majesty’s fleet in 1851, the detailed account of the Victoria & Albert was found as Magnus says: “I very nearly gave up when thumbing through the 400 page record as, half way through, a record of the Victoria & Albert detailed just two crew-member stipends – the Captain and the First Officer – but I kept looking and there towards the very front of the record was the full list and from that information I could trace the naval records of the Yeomen of the Signals.”

‘There is no Second’ also throws new light on the Island’s most famous race in history, arguing that the race was indeed a lot closer than had originally been thought with the Aurora, a fast Cutter, closing up behind the America in the final stages of the race and the sand-ballasted, but not entered yacht, the Wildfire, almost certainly beating America on the water. The book goes on to detail the subsequent poor racing record of the yacht America and goes up to the very first challenge for the America’s Cup in 1870 by James Lloyd Ashbury. The name of the Aurora, the yacht that officially finished second in the race, does not appear on the America’s Cup alongside thirteen other finishers that day, further embellishing the legend that ‘There is no Second.’

About the Author:

Magnus Wheatley has written about the America’s Cup since being captivated by the 1987 America’s Cup where he used to catch an early train to school in Southampton to cut out the reports from the Times and Telegraph newspapers to ‘blog’ about the event – he still has that lever arch file today.

Today he is the Chief Writer for the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup that will be held in Barcelona from September to October this year and his book ‘There is no Second’ has been adopted as an official book of the event, available at all the America’s Cup stores in Barcelona this summer. His daily reports are available to read on www. americascup.com and he remains one of the key writers and journalists of the America’s Cup in the world today.

The book was released worldwide on Amazon back in May.

East Cowes Author Decodes the Island's Most Famous Yacht Race

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