January 24, 1911
Charles “Charlie” Barr, a sailing skipper whose accomplishments included service as a three-time winning captain of the America’s Cup, died in Southampton, England. He was 46. “Capt. Barr had appeared to be in perfect health,” reported the New York Times in his obituary. “He was having breakfast with his family when suddenly he placed a hand upon his heart and with a cry of pain fell forward into the arms of his wife dead.” An article appearing in the Michigan-based journal Square Deal later that year noted that Barr’s death marked “the passing of one of the greatest yachtsmen the world has ever seen.”
Barr had been born on July 11, 1864, in the Scottish town of Gourock. In his youth, he learned the basics of seamanship and — inspired by the yachting triumphs of his older brother John — left his land-bound apprenticeship at a grocery to instead pursue a maritime career. His first job out on the water entailed serving as a commercial fisherman aboard a flounder trawler on Scotland’s River Clyde.
An even more life-changing opportunity for Charlie Barr took place in 1884, when he joined John in traveling to the United States in the yacht Clara. After their arrival in the United States, the brothers used that vessel to compete in numerous sailing races on that side of the Atlantic. The overall success of John and Charlie Barr in those races ultimately led the Royal Clyde Yacht Club back in Scotland to select the former as the skipper of the yacht Thistle and the latter as a member of the crew in that vessel’s challenge against the American yacht Volunteer in the America’s Cup in 1887.
While Thistle was decisively defeated by Volunteer in that competition, the experience proved to be beneficial to Charlie Barr and his yachting career in at least one key respect. He was introduced at that time to renowned American naval architect and yacht design innovator Nathanael Greene Herreshoff. Throughout much of the remainder of his life as a professional sailor, Barr would use vessels designed by Herreshoff.
As the skipper of the New York Yacht Club’s yacht Columbia in the America’s Cup in 1899, Barr led his crew to victory against the Royal Ulster Yacht Club challenger Shamrock. Barr skippered Columbia to another America’s Cup win two years later, when that vessel soundly defeated the Royal Ulster Yacht Club’s Shamrock II. In 1903, Barr achieved yet another America’s Cup triumph when he served as captain of the New York Yacht Club’s Reliance. This vessel prevailed over the Royal Ulster Yacht Club’s entry Shamrock III.
One of Barr’s other major claims to fame involved breaking the record for the fastest crossing of a sailing yacht across the Atlantic. This happened during the transatlantic yachting race known as Kaiser Cup in 1905, when Barr skippered a three-master schooner (aptly named Atlantic) across that ocean in 12 days, four hours, one minute, and 19 seconds. This record remained intact until 1980, the year in which French Navy officer and yachtsman Éric Tabarly made his way across the Atlantic in a trimaran (a multihull boat) in 10 days, five hours, 14 minutes, and 20 seconds.
At the time of Barr’s death, those praising him for his sailing expertise and exploits included G.A. Cormack of the New York Yacht Club. “Captain Barr was the greatest skipper who ever lived,” proclaimed Cormack. “His career as a skipper of the cup was such a uniformly successful one that it would be hard to single out his greatest feat. All his races were wonderfully well sailed.” Barr was inducted into the America’s Cup Hall of Fame in Rhode Island in 1993 and into the California-based National Sailing Hall of Fame in 2011.
Photo Credit: Public Domain
For more information on Charlie Barr, please check out https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1911/01/25/104818034.pdf
Additional information on transatlantic sailing records is available at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transatlantic_sailing_record
Transportation History 
Leave a comment