3-021-671 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Royal Thames Yacht Club schooner-match: the Cambria and Witchcraft rounding the Mouse Light, 1869. 'The great schooner-match of the Royal Thames Yacht Club, on Saturday, the 5th June, was honoured by the presence of the Prince of Wales, on board his new steam-yacht, named the Princess, which accompanied the racing-yachts along their course. This was from Rosherville pier to the Mouse Light and back again. The competitors were Count Batthyany's yacht Flying Cloud, of 75 tons burden; Mr. A. O. Wilkinson's Gloriana, 133 tons; Mr. H. W. Birch's Fleur-de-Lys, 80 tons; Mr. T. Broadwood's Witchcraft, 206 tons; Mr. J. Ashbury's Cambria, 188 tons (which is the famous American challenger); and Mr. J. Mullholland's Egeria, 152 tons...In rounding the Mouse Light, about half-past two o'clock, the Gloriana was one minute before the Egeria, which was nearly six minutes before the Witchcraft...It was an admirable contest...between one of the finest British and one of the finest American yachts...At the end of the race the Egeria came in first, twenty minutes past six o'clock; the Cambria was four minutes and eleven seconds behind her; the Gloriana was just as much behind the Cambria'. From "Illustrated London News", 1869.