This painting is one of a number of small oils that Buttersworth executed in 1893 depicting the America's Cup series between the Vigilant and the Valkyrie II. In one of the most exciting America's Cup races ever, the Vigilant defeated the Valkyrie II by only 40 seconds in the final race to take the Cup. In 1894, Buttersworth executed a chromolithograph of the same subject which was published by the Forest and Steam Publishing Company of New York. It was the ninth and final America's Cup that Buttersworth depicted.