LEARN FROM THE BEST MUSICIANS IN NEW YORK www.licmusicacademy.com 917-548-3598 44-02 23rd St. Suite 203 LIC, NY 32 APRIL 2015 I LIC COURIER I www.queenscourier.com ■LEGENDS “The Best of All Losers” To this day Sir Thomas Lipton is remembered in the rarefied world of the America’s Cup Yacht Racing. He challenged the competition five times with a flotilla of ships named Shamrock I through Shamrock V. On each occasion he lost. It is ironic how a man known to have a nearly unparalleled “golden touch” in business is remembered today as “the best of all losers.” It was pure bad luck. The ships were all state-of-the-art designs and masterpieces of beauty. Reproductions still grace the walls of boat clubs around the world. Our story focuses on Shamrock III. She was launched in Dumbarton, Scotland. Demasted during trials, several crew members were injured and one drowned after falling overboard. Sailors, who are a suspicious lot, must have whispered that she was cursed. The 1903 America’s Cup was the Cup’s twelfth challenge and the last one to take place in New York’s harbor. It consisted of a best of five races between Reliance, entered by the New York Yacht Club; and Shamrock III, representing the Royal Ulster Yacht Club. Two races, becalmed in fog, ended in a draw. Reliance won two others. All attention focused on the fifth test. Alas, Shamrock III was so far behind it never finished the course. Lipton conceded defeat. For several years the yacht sat in New York Harbor as Lipton pondered her future. Shamrock III, not even worth the cost of towing her back home to Europe, forced Lipton to break her up. It must have been a painful decision. One of the businessmen instrumental in building the Queensboro Bridge, John Crimmins, convinced Lipton to donate the yacht’s mast as a flagpole for Queens Plaza. We have a picture of him standing next to Lipton during the November 1909 dedication ceremony. It was one of the last times Crimmins was seen in public. A few days later, he would be dead. Pupils from Bryant High School and PS 1, 4, 5 and 6 participated in the ceremonies of receiving the pole and raising the flag. It took Lipton more than half an hour to get his automobile through the swarm of school children who had taken part in the celebration. LEGENDS OF LIC BY GREATER ASTORIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY LEGENDS OF LIC Once on the speakers’ platform, the crowd calmed as each strained to hear the yachtsman address to the crowd: “This flagstaff will have the grand old flag of the Stars and Stripes, which I always salute with the utmost reverence and respect wherever I see it,” he said. “It is the flag that sheltered and befriended me when I came to this country as a poor lad with nothing in the world. “I am delighted to know that the flag will be unfurled here today by children, as it is to them, as the future citizens of this great country, that we must look to keep Old Glory flying bravely in the breeze as the emblem of all that is pure and good.” Sir Thomas Lipton concluded his address by presenting the 125- foot steel flagstaff to New York Bridge Commissioner James W. Stevenson. The flag was unfurled by Mary Catherine Carroll of Bryant High School and Lydia M. Rhodes of Public School 5. The next chapter: “Hidden In Plain Sight?” INTERNATIONAL TILE DESIGN Direct Importers of Ceramic & Porcelain Tile Plus Marble, Granite, Stone & Glass Tiles Large Inventory In Stock Special Orders Accepted WHOLESALE & RETAIL Custom Fabrication Shop On Premises We invite you to visit our showroom, open six days a week. Mon., Tues., Weds. and Fri.: 7AM-5:30PM Thurs.: 7AM-7PM · Sat.: 9AM-4PM 44-36 21st Street • Long Island City, NY 11101 Tel: 718.728.3100 • Fax: 718.728.2648 [email protected]
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