3-034-796 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

International Yacht-Races, New York: the Livonia and the Dauntless in a gale - "Man Overboard!" 1871. Engraving of a sketch by Charles Gregory. 'The series of races off the harbour of New York, sailed by Mr. Ashbury's schooner-yacht Livonia against successive American competitors...excited great interest on that side of the Atlantic...Mr. Gordon Bennett's yacht Dauntless...[was one of the competitors]. The course was from Sandy Hook Light-Ship twenty miles to windward, and then to return: and there was to be a time allowance in favour of the Livonia, as the smaller vessel...four or five men on board the Dauntless were out on the jib-boom, stowing the flying-jib, when suddenly a tremendous wave swept two of them off into the sea...Life-buoys were instantly cast overboard, and a boat was lowered, in which a seaman pulled rapidly towards the spot, 200 yards astern, where one of the two men was struggling in the water. He was rescued just in time; but the other man, Lucas Murray, of St. John's, was never seen to rise, having, probably, been struck by the bow of the vessel and killed or stunned, in his fall from the jib-boom. After searching for him in vain, the Dauntless...[and] the Livonia, returned to Staten Island, and the race was given up'. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.