The racing cutter Galatea off the Fastnet Rock, 1885

Built by J. Reid & Co. at Port Glasgow in 1885, Galatea was a handsome steel-hulled cutter designed by J. Beavor Webb of New York specifically to challenge for the America's Cup. Owned by Lieutenant William Henn, R.N., his choice of an American designer may seem a strange one but Galatea proved a fine-looking boat registered at 87 tons gross and net (90 Thames) and measuring 90½ feet in length with a 15 foot beam. Sadly, her appearance belied her performance and, in her maiden season of 1885, she won only two prizes and both of these were 'seconds'. Sailed across the Atlantic the next year by her owner, accompanied by his wife, the first woman so to do, Galatea's defeat at the hands of the American defender Mayflower in September 1886 was not unexpected although she put up a good show. Remaining on the eastern seaboard for a further year, during which Henn won the two Queen's Jubilee Cups at Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1887, he then returned home in a remarkable seventeen days having established himself as a highly popular yachtsman on both sides of the Atlantic. Galatea herself also became extremely well-known in yachting circles, not only for the lavishness of her living quarters but also for the amusement caused by the Henn's pet monkey 'Peggy' which they trained to hoist and lower sail as well as entertain rival crews.