June i, igoi.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
43S 
it. At the first opportunity I wil] ]ay it before them, and have 
little doubt but they will indorse my views. 
Again thanking you, your committee and your club for your 
courteous attention, and assuring you tliat 1 l<now you will 
deal with the entire subject in that broad spirit of true sports- 
manship for which your club is ^anied, believe me, sir, yours 
very truly, Thomas W. Lawson. 
New York, April 30— Thomas W. Lawson,. Esq., Boston, Mass.— 
Sir; The committee of the New York Yacht Club upon the 
challenge of the Royal Ulster Yacht Club, to whom I have 
submitted your letter of April 25, desire me to e.xpress to you 
their gratification at learning that the Independence will be 
oiTered as a competitor in the trial races, under the conditions 
communicated in my letter of the 2ad instant. 
In reviewing my letter, you omit to call attention in specific 
terms to the condition that the vessel must be qualified to fly 
the flag of the New York Yacht Club— but I assrirne from your 
cordial assent to* these conditions in general that the omission 
is inadvertent 
I am requested to inform you that the committee will be glad 
•to receive the entry of the Independence for the trial races, 
when she shall have been qualified under their ruling. 
Should she before the trial races be qualified, under the rules 
of the club, to enter club events, there will be a number of occa- 
sions on which she can meet the Constitution and Columbia 
and thus enjoy equal facilities with those vessels for getting her 
crew thoroughly trained and disciplined and the vessel herself 
in the best possible form. 
The committee has no other desire than that the Shamrock II. 
.should meet the very best boat this country can produce. Respect- 
fully yours, Lewis Cass Ledyard, 
Chairman of Committee. 
Boston, May 1. — Commodore Lewis Cass Ledyard. Chairman 
of Committee, New York Yacht Club. — Dear Sir: Your letter 
of April .30 was received today. In reviewing your favor of the 
23d ultimo, I purposely omitted calling your attention in specific 
terms to the condition , contained therein, that the vessel must 
be qualified to fly the flag of the New York \''acht Club. I did 
not know what your club would hold to be necessary qualifica- 
tions to enable the Independence to fly your clitb flag, but I 
was satisfied your committee would at a time and in a way 
they deemed best convey to me this knowledge, which I could 
in no other way obtain, and in pledging myself to give to your 
club absolute control and management of the Independence, 
should she be selected by your committee to defend the cup, 
I felt I had covered beyond all possibility of misunderstanding 
any and all requisite details; but as you are good enough in 
the letter just to hand to invite my views on this point, I will 
give them to you frankly, asking only that your committee will 
receive them in the same spirit in which they are sent. 
In asking your committee to accept the entry of the Independ- 
ence for the trial races I would remind you we agree upon five 
essential points: I am the sole owner of the Independence; 
I am not a member of your club; your club is unanimous in 
its ^iesire to have the Independence a competitor; I" desire 
to have her compete, and consent to have your club absolutely 
control and manage her until the conclusion of the match. It 
is my opinion _that in giving to vour club the absolute manage- 
ment and control of the Independence I cover the condition that 
she must be qualified to fly the flag of the New York Yacht Club. 
As I understand such matters, your club's power as to who or 
what shall flv its flag is supreme; you can qualify the owner of 
the Independence to fly it, or you can qualify the Independence 
wdthout me by having her intrusted to your club by charter 
or by loan. 
If your committee will inform me at its earliest convenience 
what steps it will be necessary for me to take to qualify the 
Independence to enter the trial races and the club events to 
which you refer, T assure you I will appreciate it, as I realize 
it may be essential to her success that she enjoy the same 
facilities for tuning up as the Constitution and Columbia. 
Again thanking you for your courteous attention believe me, 
yours yery truly, ' Thomas W. Lawsox. 
41 West Forty-fourth Street, New York, May 10.— T. W. Law- 
son, Esq. — Dear Sir: Your letter of the 1st inst. would have 
been answered before, but I have been unable, until to-day, 
to procure a meeting of the committee. 
The question what qualifications are necessary to enable a 
vessel to fly the flag of the club must be determined by the 
con.stitution and by-laws of the New York Yacht Club. 
There are two methods in which a yacht may be thus qualified : 
First, bj' being enrolled in the name of one or more members 
of the club and registered on the club's records in the name of 
such member or members; second, bj'^ being chartered to a 
member or members for a period of not less than two months. 
Under the first of these methods she becomes entitled to all 
club privileges which any vessel can have, inclviding the right 
to enter all club events. Lender the second, she acquires the 
right to enter the squadron runs upon the annual cruise, but no 
other club races. She would, however, under the ruling of the 
committee, communicated to you in my former letter, be entitled, 
if thus chartered, to enter the America's C^p trial races. 
Either of these courses is open to the Independence, but you 
will perceive that the adoption of the former would give her a 
complete equality of privilege with the Constitution and Colum- 
bia as far as concerns preliminary opportunities for tuning tip 
and comparison, the importance of which, _ to those interested 
in her success, the committee fully recognizes, that could not 
be obtained by resorting to a charter. 
Should you desire either to put the Independence in the name 
of a member, or to charter her to a member, of course the selec- 
tion of such member would be a matter for your own personal 
choice, and the arrangement made would be one wholly between 
you and the member elected by you. The club itself could 
neither charter nor borrow a vessel for this purpose. Its control 
over the general conduct of the vessel selected to defend the 
match as its representative is acquired through the fact that 
the individual who is responsible for her management, by owner- 
ship of record or hy charter, is a member of the club and subject 
to its jurisdiction. Respectfully yours. 
Lewis Cass Ledvard, 
Chairman. 
Boston, May 11. — Commodore Lewis Cass Ledyard, Chairman 
of Committee, New York Yacht Club.— Dear Sir: Your letter 
. of the 10th instant was received to-day, and I would again 
(that there may be no misunderstanding) ask your indulgence in 
reviewing its contents. You state that your club will neither 
charter nor borrow the Independence, and that the only possible 
way for her to enter the trial races and, consequently, the races 
for the cup, will be for me to have her enrolled and registered 
in the name of a member of the New York Yacht Clutj, and 
that she can only be so enrolled and registered when I cease 
to be her owner hy making a member of yotir club her owner, 
or by giving a member of your club absolute control and man- 
agement of her by charter. 
In other words, if my understanding of the meaning of your 
letter is correct, the New York Yacht Club, with the knowledge 
that I am the sole owner of the Independence, that I have built 
her for the sole purpose of competing for the honor of defending 
the America Cup, and at a time when she is so far completed as to 
appear to have an equal chance vvith the chellenger, and of being 
as good a boat as any other candidate for the cup defense, 
informs me that it is the unanimous desire of its members that 
she be granted an equal chance with the other American boats, 
•tJnly to show to me that she will not be given any chance unless 
I make a gift to some member of your club of all that which 
belongs to me by the right of my having assumed the responsi- 
bility of an act which no member of your club or any other 
individual desired to perform. 
If my understanding is correct, I deeply regret that your 
committee should have so poor an estimate of my intelligence 
as to have thought it necessary to call to my attention that it 
was within my power to transfer my ownership of the Inde- 
pendence to a member of your club; for, if my understanding 
is correct, the substance of all your committee has said to me 
hi its courteous and welcome but nevertheless unsolicited cor- 
respondence is that I, being the sole owner of the Independ- 
ence, can, if I desire, in any way that I deem best, transfer 
the ownership from myself to a member of your club. 
I can give her, I can sell her, or I can charter her, I would 
I'espectfully call the attention of your committee to the fact 
that I did not build the Independence for the purpose of finan- 
cial gain _ and I therefore, woiild not sell an ownership, in 
whole or in part, or by charter to any individual. Furthermore, 
if .it was my intention to profit in ship dicker, she would, of 
course, be sold to the highest bidder, regardless of his member? 
ship in any club. 
Of course your committee an4 all members of your olub know 
it is impossiljlf for to find an individual pf sufficient 
respectability to have been admitted to any club who would 
treat with anything but contempt a proposition that he go 
before your club and the ptiblic with the deceptive assertion 
that he was the owner of the Independence, and, therefore, 
entitled to those things that necessarily go with such ownership, 
a;id I think your club members upon second thought will agree 
with me that no man sufficiently housebrokcn to be at large 
would ask any one to assume a position of such duplicity. 
^ Imagine the situation of a respectable owner who had voluntarily 
intrusted a ship like the Independence to an individual— irre- 
sponsible as one would necessarily have to be to become the 
beneficiary of such a subterfuge— if, in the first race, she sank 
an excursion steamer or in any one of many ways was held 
responsible for heavy damages; or if at a critical moment in 
<he race this peculiar individual, actuated by motives similar 
to those which prompted him to pose as owner of a ship in 
which he had no ownership, should purposely lose to the oppos- 
ing yacht. Of course the ludicrousness of such a situation must 
appeal to your committee. 
Recognizing that it might be absolutely necessary for the 
successful defense of the cup that the New York Yacht Club 
should have the supervision, management and control of all 
candidates for the defense, I determined, at the time I decided 
to build a candidate, to do anything it was possible for a self- 
respecting individual to do to have my boat defend, if she proved 
best for that purpose. 
I had decided before I received your first letter that, regard- 
less of personal feeling to the contrary, I would, upon request, 
turn over the absolute management and control of my boat to 
your club, and at the same time free vour club absolutely from 
all responsibility and bind myself absolutely to do all those 
things which in the judgment of your club were deemed neces- 
sary, and supposing, as I did, that the power of your club to 
make or change its by-laws or constitution, its rules or its regu- 
lations, was supreme, and that it was the custom of your club 
to fly its club flag from its club house, buildings, club tenders, 
yachts, or other property at will, I am fr.ank to admit I did not 
think the New York Yacht Club would have any trouble in 
deciding a way which would allow the Independence fair play; 
but if my understanding of the meaning of your correspondence 
is correct, it is impossible for the Independence to defend the 
cup, therefore impossible for the Independence to enter the trial 
races for the selection of a candidate to defend the cup, and I 
am not sure that it is not unfair for the Independence to race, 
previous to the cup race, against any vessel which may be 
selected for the defense; furthermore, I am not sure that it 
may not be tmfair to the Independence to race, subsequent to 
the cup match, the loser of that match, or unfair to the loser 
of that match for the Independence to race, subsequent to the 
cup match, tlie winner of that match — that is, separately. 
Therefore. I am of opinion that, if my understanding of the 
meaning of your correspondence is correct, the reason for the 
Independence no longer exists, for it is impossible to ascertain 
whether the best American boat is that boat which defends the 
cup, because it is impossible for any boat owned bv an American 
other than a member of the New York Yacht Club to have any 
part in the cup defense. ' 
As we are rushing work on the Independence in an endeavor 
to launch her next week, and as I have already entered into 
engagements to race her against the Constitution and the Colum- 
bia, will not your committee favor me as .soon as possible after 
receipt of this with a reply, by telegraph if convenient, whether 
my understanding of the meaning of your correspondence is 
correct, that I may decide whether to abandon finishing the 
Independence and cancel her entries. 
Thanking you in advance for yotir reply, and assuring you I 
most deeply regret the Independence was not created under 
corlditions which would allow her at least an equal chance with 
a foreign vessel for a trophy that has until now been supposed 
bj;- all to represent the highest type of American and English 
fair play, I am, sir, yours very truly, 
Thomas W. Lawson. 
41 West Forty-fourth Street, New York, May 15. — Thomas W. 
Lawson. Esn. — Sir: Your letter, dated May 11, was received by 
me on Monday. 
As I said to you in my first letter, the substance of the condi- 
tions which would govern entries in the trial races was com- 
municated to Mr. Crowninshield, the designer of your yacht, 
at least four months ago, in answer to a request by him for 
information on the subject. 
As appears from your letters, you "built the Independence 
for the purpose of oiFfering her as a defender of the cup," fully 
"understanding that it was not open to contest between indi- 
viduals, but that, a match could be sailed only between the 
challenging club on the one hand and the club holding the cup 
on the other," and "that the vesseL selected to defend the match 
must be made the representative of the challenged club." It 
would have been at least natural, under these circumstances, for 
you to inform yourself in advance of the conditions necessary 
to qualify her, if the information furnished Mr. Crowninshield 
was not sufficient. 
It is true that the correspondence which has talcen place 
between us was, as you say, not solicited by you. This commit- 
tee voluntarily addressed you upon the subject, in an attempt 
to enable you to procure your vessel to be entered as a com- 
petitor for the honor of defending the cup, in the only way in 
which it was possible for her to be entered under the constitution 
and laws of the club. 
If the committee erred in extending you this cotirtesy, the 
error is not one that causes them any regret. 
We have no desire to enter into any controversy with you, and 
do not care to review your letter in detail. Your principal objec- 
tion to the terms of "competition seems to be that in your 
judgment it would be impossible to find any individual of suffi- 
cient respectability to have been admitted to any club who 
would be willing to have a competing yacht transferred to him 
of record or by charter, and you criticise, in language which I 
refrain from repeating, the position of any member accepting 
such a transfer. Yet his position wotild differ in no respect 
whatever from that occupied by Mr. VV. Butler Duncan, as man- 
a.ger of the Constitution, or that assumed by Mr. Edwin D. 
Morgan, as manager of the Columbia, and I have yet to hear 
the suggestion from any one that either of these gentlemen 
would consent to assume any relation that was not justified by 
tile highest sense of honor. 
We have already shown that it is entirely within your power 
to qualify the Independence for these events, by conforming 
to the rule which has been in fact observed in respect to all 
previous matche.s, viz., that a competing vessel should be quali- 
tied to fly the flag of the club and entitled to be entered hy a 
member. The suggestion that to meet yoiir individual Views 
the New York Yacht Club should change its constitution and 
laws, for the purpose of departing from the custom of years, 
is, of course, one that cannot be entertained. 
The committee can only regret that it has been possible for a 
correspondence, which was initiated by it entirely in a spirit 
of courtesy toward you and in a desire to do all that was possible 
to enable you to realize the object for which you had built the 
Independence, to close with such a letter as that just received 
from you — a letter which catises uy no little surprise and dis.r 
appointment, as in it you assume a position which we find 
ourselves at a loss to reconcile with your communication of April 
2.T, in which you accepted with such apparent cordiality the 
committee's ruling as transmitted to you. 
Respectfully yours, 
Lewis Cass Ledyard. 
Chairman. 
Boston, May 23. — Commodore Lewis Cass Ledyard, Chairman 
of Committee, New York Yacht Club. — Dear Sir: Your letter 
of the loth instant was duly received. I trust you will pardon 
my delay in answering it. 
I regret that your committee misconstrued my last letter. It 
hardly seems possible your committee can be dealing with the 
matter with only a desire to do all that is possible to enable 
you to realize the object for which I built the Independ- 
ence. I have frankly stated that in building her I had no motives 
whatever other than to meet the Urgent -requests of Boston 
yachtsmen that a boat should be built, and incidentally to enjoy 
the pleasure which I anticipated would come with her owner- 
ship. I understood fully her position and how it might be 
affected by the deed of gift, your club's construction of it, or 
your club's possible action with reference to inviting the Inde- 
pendence to race. I understood fully I might have no oppor- 
tunity to race, and with this knowledge I was satisfied with my 
position. I have made no complaint nor entertained anv feeling 
that I had b een m the least injured or unfairly treated bv your 
dub or by any one, and whatever feeling I had in connection 
with your club was that of admiration only for its past achieve- 
ments in sports. 
At this stage your comi?iittee opened a correspondence with 
me for th? ptirpofe, yo^ §t|ted, Qf inviting the iTidependence 
to participate in the cup races. Y'our correspondence was not 
only courteous, but, as I stated in my last letter, very welcome 
to me. I entertained no thought while the correspondence was 
m progress but pleasant expectations that its results would 
.surely be the racing of my bo.at under fair and honorable con- 
ditions, which 1 felt sure your club would evolve. I will frankly 
admit that when your letter containing the suggestion that it 
might be necessary to transfer the ONsnnership to some individual 
came to me, in answering it on the spur of the moment I used 
strong expressions, but I emphatically disavow any intention 
in that letter or in any of my correspondence of treating your 
club, your committee or your members with anything but respect, 
and I ask you if you deem it fair to accuse me of desiring 
to hold controversy with your club or intending to insult two 
of your most representative members when all I have done is 
to answer the letters sent by your committee, Is it not possible 
that your committee have confounded my acts or intentions 
with those which have been attributed to me by rumor, for 
which I am not in any way responsible? 
My case is a simple one: At an early stage of hmHing the 
Independence, I was obliged to answer false public statements, and 
in answering I took the position that it was impossible for me to 
give my boat to any individual. Later, when your committee 
opened correspondence with me, it was, as I tried to show you, 
impossible under the existing conditions (not ideal conditions 
which might have been) for me to give my boat to an individual. 
The cases of Mr. Edwin D. Morgan and Mr. W. Butler Duncan. 
I still insist are in no way similar. Those gentlemen were 
selected by their fellow club members for the highest honor 
within their gift, and acceptance by these gentlemen of the owner- 
ship or management of the Columbia and Constitution has not 
placed them and could not place them in the eyes of sportsmen, 
fellow club members or the public at large in anything but an 
enviable and hororable light, and I ask that you accept my 
emphatic protest against the suggestion that anything which I 
have written in any way refl.ects upon the honor of these gen- 
tlemen. 
1 regret, as does your committee, if it should happen that our 
correspondence ends in anything but the pleasantest manner, 
and I beg to repeat to you I hold myself in readiness to do 
anything which it is possible for me to do to enable the Inde- 
pendence to race that, in the wise judgment of your committee, 
is deemed best, and T pledge myself that if your committee 
notifies me it is impossible— I do not care for what reasons— 
for my boat to take part in the cup defense, I will cease all 
effort in that direction and do all in my power to dispel any 
bad impression that may exist by arranging to in some other 
way settle to the satisfaction of all yachtsmen and others the 
question of which is the best American boat. Believe me, yours 
very truly, Thomas W. Lawson. 
New York Yacht Clttb, 41 West Forty-fourth Street, New York, 
May 24.— Thomas W. Lawson, Esq.— Sir: Your letter of yester- 
day was received this morning. 
You appear to entertain an erroneous impression concerning 
the position of Mr. Duncan and Mr. Morgan. These gentlemen 
were not selected as managers of the Constitution and Columbia 
by the members of the club. In each case the selection was 
by the individual owners of the yacht, and the arrangement was 
one wholly between such owners as individuals on the one side 
and the gentlemen selected as managers on the other. 
This comrnittee certainly does not purpose to notify you that 
it is impossible for your boat to take part in the trial races or 
the cup defense. On the contrary it has very distinctly notified 
you that it is entirely possible for her to take such part, and has 
fully explained to you the conditions which it is opeil to you 
lo avail yourself of for the purpose of qualifying her as a candi- 
date for the match. Respectfully yours. 
, Lewis Cass Ledyard, 
it' vS' ' ' Chairman. 
Boston, May 2o.— Commodore Lewis Cass Ledyard, Chairman 
of Committee, New York Yacht Club.— Dear Sir: Your letter 
of yesterday with the assurance that my boat can take papt in 
the trial races and, if selected, may defend the cup, was received 
this morning. I will at once charter an interest in her to such 
person or persons as may be agreeable to your committee and 
will give such person or persons full control and management 
of her during the match. I thank j^our committee for having 
suggested a way to fairly determine in a sportsmanlike manner 
which boat shall be selected to defend the cup, and' I will do 
all in my power to make the contest a success. Believe me, 
yours very truly, Thomas W. Lawson. 
[Small Yacht Constrttction and 
Rigging, 
BY UNTON HOPE. 
Chapter III.— Laying Off, Making the Motilds and Setting 
Up the Frame (Continaed). 
It is easier to fit the rudder trunk or case now than after the 
boat is planked, as woidd be the case with larger craft, and this is 
made like a box with two lin. mahogany or Kaurie pine planks 
on eacji side of the sternpost, with a l^in. centerpiece on the 
after side. The latter is rabbeted into the two sides, and all three 
are rabbeted into the counter frame, 
All the joints, like the scarphs of the stem and sternpost, etc., 
must be well fittted and painted with thick red and white lead 
before bolting together. 
Both boat's keels and frames are now ready to set up, but they 
will be treated in different ways, as the centerboarder will be built 
bottom up, and the keel boat keel downward. 
Starting with the centerboarder, draw a central chalk line on 
the floor and mark all the sections out, then set up the midship 
section exactly square with the central line, so that the keel will be 
about 8ft. above it. using the plumb line to make sure the center 
line of the mould is vertical and right over the line on the floor. 
Fix the mould' in place with a center post, which should be fixed 
to the mould so that one edge is on the center line. This post 
must be nailed to a cleat on the floor and well stayed fore and aft 
to keep it in a vertical position. Two side posts will be necessary 
to keep the mould level. 
The exact distance apart from center to center of the moulds 
should now be checked along the center floor line and the height 
of the L.W.L. on the midship mould noted, as all the other moulds 
must be leveled to this height above the floor. They will all be 
set up in the foregoing manner and well stayed fore and aft so 
that they are all square with the center floor line and their vertical 
center lines plumb and L.W.L.'s level. This is a long and tedious 
business, but on its accuracy all the rest of tlie work depends, so 
do not spare a little extra care and time over it, and fix them so 
that they will not move when you come to work on them. 
I would advise working to the fore edge of the moulds forward 
of and including the midship section and to the after edge of 
the others — that is to say, place the forward moulds so that tlie 
mark for their places on the central floor line comes just on the 
fore side of each, and on the after side of the after moulds. The 
object of this is to avoid bevels on the edges of the moulds, which 
would be required if the center of each were taken instead of the 
edge, as shown by the sketch. 
Check the squaring of the moulds by measuring from the 
center of the stem to the outside of the first mould at the sheer 
level on each side, and see they are the same; then do this be- 
tween each pair of moulds till aU are exact. 
The moulds are now ready for the keel to be bent over them 
and screwed to each, when it is seen to be correct and fair to the 
curve of the drawing, and the stem and transom must then be 
stayed in a similar manner to the moulds, squaring and plumbing 
from the central floor line as before, and a line should be 
stretched through all the moulds at the L.W.L. and carefully 
leveled. A sheer batten should be nailed around the moulds at the 
deck level to fair them and hold them all in place while the rabbet 
is cut. 
The moulds for the keel boat will not be set up first, but after 
the keel and frame are set up in place on the stocks, and fixed 
by shores and stays from the roof and walls. The stocks are best 
made from a 3in. by 9in. deal on edge, firmly fixed to the floor 
at exactly the same angle as the keel. 
When the frame is fixed, a clear center line must be marked 
along keel, stem, sternpost, and counter frame, and the stations 
for the moulds marked on it in the same manner as o^ the floor 
line in the case of tha centerboard boat. The moulds can now be 
set up as before, except that they are now right way up and 
.stayed from the roof, or if that is too high a fore and aft 3in. by 
9in. deal must be fixed from stem to stern, and well secured to 
the roof and walls, and the moulds stayed from that. 
When the moulds are all fixed square and plumb in their proper 
places 3n4 the sheer hstten or., next job i.i to cu^ tb,^ T^t^bst, 
