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Lot Essay
Mr. T.O.M. (Tommy) Sopwith built two yachts, each named Endeavour, to mount his challenges for the America's Cup in the mid-1930s. Both Endeavours were J-Class yachts designed by Charles Nicholson and built by Camper & Nicholson at Gosport, the first being launched in 1934. Endeavour (I), displacing 143 tons and rigged to carry 7,560 square feet of sail, was considered the best J-Class boat of her day and came extremely close to winning the Cup races of 1934. Skippered by Sopwith himself and using a double-clewed jib designed by him, she was defeated by the American defender Rainbow by only the narrowest of margins.
Westward, 323 tons and built by the great Nat Herreshoff at Rhode Island in 1910, was one of the largest racing schooners whose career fell into two distinct phases. Like King George V's legendary Britannia, she too had royal connections having been originally purchased - at the Kaiser's instigation - by a syndicate of German businessmen who renamed her Hamburg. In a brilliant start she won all eleven races in her first season and then enjoyed many other successes in the years preceding the Great War. Sold out of German ownership after the Armistice, her new American owner Clarence Hatry restored her original name and his first season in 1920 almost equalled the triumphs of 1910. It was after her sale to T.B.F. Davis in 1924 however, that she finally came into her own when she became a regular challenger to Britannia. Over the years Davis and the King developed a spirited though friendly rivalry and Westward became such a prized possession of Davis that he, like King George before him, stipulated that his boat also was to be sunk after his death.
Westward, 323 tons and built by the great Nat Herreshoff at Rhode Island in 1910, was one of the largest racing schooners whose career fell into two distinct phases. Like King George V's legendary Britannia, she too had royal connections having been originally purchased - at the Kaiser's instigation - by a syndicate of German businessmen who renamed her Hamburg. In a brilliant start she won all eleven races in her first season and then enjoyed many other successes in the years preceding the Great War. Sold out of German ownership after the Armistice, her new American owner Clarence Hatry restored her original name and his first season in 1920 almost equalled the triumphs of 1910. It was after her sale to T.B.F. Davis in 1924 however, that she finally came into her own when she became a regular challenger to Britannia. Over the years Davis and the King developed a spirited though friendly rivalry and Westward became such a prized possession of Davis that he, like King George before him, stipulated that his boat also was to be sunk after his death.