Built to emulate the fast pilot-boats which served the port of New York, America was registered there on 17 June 1851, provisioned immediately and sailed for Europe four days later. Carrying a crew of only six men led by Captain 'Dick' Brown, a Sandy Hook pilot and part owner of the Mary Taylor from which America had borrowed sails for the trans-Atlantic crossing, Commodore Stevens and his fellow V.I.P's came over by steamer and joined the schooner at Le Havre. Once at Cowes, America changed into her racing sails supplied by R.H. Wilson of New York and, within a month of arriving in British waters, she had won the now famous race and become the legend she has remained.
Co-incidentally, this painting by Charles Gregory and that by Haughton Forrest (lot ) are both extremely rare depictions of America in her pre-race rig. Most of the known portraits of her show her rigged, not unnaturally, as the winning yacht in a remarkable race, and very few images are known which record her as she first arrived at Cowes. For further information, also see the notes to lot .