Empty cup for tea king

By Terry Maddaford

Sir Thomas Lipton would have happily swapped all the tea he poured into millions of cups around the world for just one glass of champagne to celebrate the first successful America's Cup challenge.

No one tried harder to wrest the Auld Mug but his five challenges, all under the flag of the Royal Ulster Yacht Club and all in boats named Shamrock,came up short.

Lipton, born in Glasgow in 1850, lived for some years in the United States before as a 19-year-old he set up his own grocery business. By 50 he had made his fortune with tea (not bags) bearing his name.

While he had never sailed a yacht, Lipton, pictured right, owned the luxury steamer Erin which was ready to tow his first challenger, in 1899, to New York. Shamrock eventually making the transatlantic journey under jury rig.

The original Shamrock – a cutter – was designed simply as a racing yacht by William Fife jun and built at Thornycroft's yard in England.

After a number of delays the first, of three, races was sailed on October 16 with Columbia, and skipper Charles Barr representing the New York Yacht Club determinedly defending the cup they had called their own since 1851.

The Americans, with superior crew work, won the first race by over 10 minutes and the second unopposed as the Shamrock's top mast snapped off. Columbia won the third race by six and a half minutes.

Two years later Lipton was back with Shamrock ll to again lock horns with Barr and Columbia. This time Lipton's Erin did tow the challenger to New York where E.A. Sycamore took the helm.

The Americans won the first race on September 28 by just 1m 20s but stretched that to over three and a half minutes in the second. They completed the hat-trick by a mere 41s after racing over 30 miles.

Lipton was back less than two years later with Shamrock lll to challenge Barr, his largely-Scandinavian crew and their new boat Reliance.

The defenders won the first race by over seven minutes, the second by 1m 19s and the third by a walkover when Shamrock skipper Robert Wringe got lost in the fog.

"Tommy" Lipton challenged again in 1913 but had to wait until after the Great War to get back on the water with Shamrock lV – a smaller yacht than the earlier challengers – and with William Burton as skipper.

The NYYC defended with Resolute (skipper Charles Francis Adams). Lipton watched Burton steer Shamrock lV home in the first race when Adams was forced to retire.

It was the first victory by a challenger since 1871 – but for Lipton, a hollow one. The challengers went 2-0 ahead. The unthinkable was possible but the defenders, fighting for their lives, came back to win the rest and leave the cup bolted down at the New York Yacht Club.

Ten years on and approaching his 80th birthday, Lipton mounted his last challenge with Shamrock V. Again, this time with Ned Heard – his fifth skipper in as many attempts – at the helm, Lipton failed. They did not win a race in four against New York's Enterprise in the first contest between the new J-Class boats.

Enterprise was sailed by Harold S. Vanderbilt, the great grandson of the one-time richest man in the world. In the first contest off Newport, Rhode Island, Enterprise won the first two (in a best of seven series) easily, the third by a walkover and the fourth by nearly six minutes. Vanderbilt went on to successfully defend again in 1934 and '37. Lipton, finally, admitted defeat muttering: "I canna win, I canna win." He died before he could challenge again.