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Race of the Elsies
Size:21 1/2 x 27 Edition:780 Status:VLI Price:$500.00
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Here, off Gloucester, the famous Elsie is leading the Elsie G. Silva in a 1921 elimination race to pick a challenger for the International Fishermen's Cup. Although Elsie won this race and succeeded the lost Esperanto as the U.S. challenger, she was later defeated in the cup race by the big new Canadian, Bluenose.
The high spirited men who sailed these last and beautiful schooners just couldn’t resist racing with each other. They were like young daredevils at play, unbridaled in their race for speed, and adventure and of course victory. Inevitably there were challenge races and exchanges of monies, too. Then came international challenges that resulted in the famous cup races that went on, not too peacefully for fifteen or eighteen years. There was high rivalry involved—the competition was hard, fierce and unforgiving. It was characteristic of these events that they often ended in some sort of snarl. Perhaps it is only now, fifty years later, that the feelings of rivalry—of hurt pride and vainglorious victory have calmed down.
The Elsie G. Silva was built in 1915 for Capt. Manuel Silva who commanded her—the fastest and prettiest in the Portuguese fleet—for most of her career. She had her share of mishaps, once running aground in a dense fog in Gloucester Harbor. On another occasion, she was caught in a squall which broke both masts and snapped the main bourn. During a blinding snowstorm on Valentine’s Day, 1927, the Silva was bound to Boston with 80,000 pounds of fish when she struck a sand bar. Fifteen of her crew left in dories and rowed six hours before they were rescued. Within a few hours, the Elsie G. Silva had been pounded to bits and not a piece of her remained. Fortunately, her beauty and the spirit of the Elsie are captured here by Thomas Hoyne.
