1911: The Ultimate Finish Line for a World-Class Racing Vessel

September 12, 1911

More than three decades after achieving worldwide fame as a winner of the America’s Cup, the schooner-yacht Madeleine underwent her final journey when she was towed to the mouth of the Hillsborough River on Florida’s west-central coast to be dismantled and sunk there. During the previous year, the Madeleine had been used in that region of the Sunshine State to gather sponges from sea beds. Along with noting that fact on the day of the Madeleine’s demise, however, the Tampa Tribune also reported that “the vessel’s past records and its history have been recited by sea-faring men over and over.”

The Madeleine had been built by David Kirby in Rye, New York, during the late 1860s for yachtsman Jacob B. Voorhis Jr. She was launched from Kirby’s shipyard in Rye on March 28, 1869. Voorhis, who was a member of the Brooklyn Yacht Club, eventually had major modifications made to the Madeleine so that she could be even speedier and therefore much more competitive in yachting races in the New York City region.

In the first several years following her launch, the Madeleine did indeed prove to be a daunting force to be reckoned with in various races. A notable example of this was the Atlantic Yacht Club race on June 17, 1870. In that competition, the Madeleine raced against the vessels Mystic and Addie V in a 30-mile (48.3-kilometer) course from the Brooklyn-based Gowanus Bay (the location of both the Atlantic and Brooklyn Yacht Clubs) to the area known as the Southwest Split an them back to the starting point. The Madeleine won this race, completing the entire course in four hours and seven minutes.

Another illustration of the Madeleine’s tough-to-match achievements involved the New York Yacht Club regatta in June 1873. The Madeleine came in first in the round-trip racing between Gowanus Bay and the Southwest Split and, in doing so, set a new record for that annual event with her winning time of four hours, one minute and twenty seconds.

In January 1875, yachtsman John S. Dickerson purchased the Madeleine from Voorhis. It was in August of the following year that the Madeleine’s most prestigious accomplishment took place with her winning the America’s Cup against stiff competition from the Royal Canadian Yacht Club challenger Countess of Dufferin. The Madeleine, which was skippered by Josephus Williams and David Snediker, prevailed over the Countess of Dufferin 2-0 in that year’s edition of what is now the oldest still-existing major international competition of any sport.

In reporting on the Madeleine’s triumph in this event, the Cleveland Leader gave credit to both vessel and her crew. This newspaper asserted, “The Madeleine is not only a faster vessel, but she was more ably handled than her competitor.”

Following the 1876 America’s Cup, the Madeleine was used in large part as a pleasure sailboat only by Dickerson. In 1900, he sold the Madeleine to Levin Denton Vinson. The Madeleine subsequently ended up in Florida, where she was used for several years to help transport lumber before being placed into service as a sponger.  

A decade after the dismantling and sinking of the Madeleine, the Tampa Tribune provided a poignant update on this vessel. “Abandoned to decay and oblivion in the sands of the Hillsborough River now like the rotting bones of a world-famous schooner yacht known as the fastest ship that carried canvas half a century ago,” stated this newspaper. “The yacht Madeleine, fourth of a the long series of peerless craft that have kept the America’s Cup in the United States from 1851 to the present day, has sailed her last finish line and dropped anchor in Tampa forever.”

(The accompanying image of the Madeleine is part of a painting created in 1876 by maritime artist Frederick Schiller Cozens.)

Image Credit: Public Domain

For more information on the Madeleine, please check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madeleine_(yacht)