Her Majesty’s Cup, Cowes, Isle of Wight, 1858. A large Victorian silver sailing prize, Robert Garrard for R. & S. Garrard & Co., London, 1858

The inscription reads: ‘The Gift of Her Majesty Queen Victoria to the Royal Yacht Squadron, Cowes, 1858.’

The competition between schooners belonging to the Royal Yacht Squadron for Her Majesty’s Cup of 1858, valued at 100 guineas, took place on Wednesday, 4 August. The course was from Cowes Castle, Isle of Wight, to a boat moored six miles to the west off Hurst Castle, back to Cowes and then to the Nab Light to the east and finishing at the starting point. The yachts in the race were the Hon. Hugh Rowley’s Claymore (130 tons), William Curling’s Shark (175 tons). Sir Gilbert East’s Ella (106 tons), and Joseph Weld’s Alarm (248 tons).

‘The Cup, which was manufactured by Mr. Garrard, of Panton-street, Haymarket, was last night exhibited in the Squadron-house, and it is a very beautiful and artistic piece of workmanship. It is expected that if there is anything of a breeze the Alarm must win the prize; and should that turn out to be the fact, Mr. Weld will this season add two more Royal Cups to his already large number, having successfully competed for them upon former occasions.’¹

‘The Alarm took the lead and maintained it throughout, but had to look uncommonly sharp to win, the voracious Shark following close upon her lee all the while, but unable to grasp her. The Ella maintained her position of third in the race until the last round, when she withdrew from the contest. During the match the Alarm lost upwards of six minutes in rounding to, to pick up one of her crew who accidentally toppled over-board. The Shark now appeared to have made up her mind to seize the Alarm; but by skilful handling, and manœuring with the tide, the latter again widened the distance between then, and the goal was reached by Alarm just eleven minutes a-head of the Shark. The Alarm was therefore winner, beyond her allowance of time, some four or five minutes. The Claymore did not arrive until three-quarters of an hour after the willing yacht.’²

The Alarm, which has been described as one of the most famous among British yachts of the 19th century, was built at Lymington in 1830 for Joseph Weld (27 January 1777 – 20 October 1863) of Lymington and Lulworth Castle, Dorset. A cutter-rigged yacht, the Alarm was rebuilt as a schooner in 1852. She was taken out of service in the late 1860s and finally broken up in 1889.

‘Mr. Joseph Weld, the senior member of the Royal Yacht Squadron [for] nearly half a century was an active promoter of yachting, and probably no one ever possessed so many royal cups and other prizes won by the beautiful specimens of naval architecture which he had built from his own designs. Within the memory of the present generation probably no yacht gained for him so much fame as the celebrated Alarm, which was originally constructed as a cutter, and was considered to be the fastest vessel afloat until 1851, when the introduction of the America into our waters caused the remodelling of the old school. In the following year, with the ambition of possessing the fasted yacht, he caused the Alarm to be lengthened 20ft and converted into a schooner, the successful issue of which increased his fame. . . . His death will be lamented by a large circle of friends, and by the poor of his neighbourhood, to whom he was a never-failing benefactor. He was descended from an ancient family, that of Humphrey Weld of Lulworth Castle, who purchased that estate of the Earl of Suffolk after the Civil Wars.’³

Mr. Weld had already had considerable success with the Alarm before winning Her Majesty’s Cup at Cowes in 1858. At Cowes on 21 August 1830, the Alarm, then a cutter, had won the King’s Cup, which took the form of a massive silver-gilt tankard supplied by Rundell, Bridge & Rundell.⁴ The Alarm also won the first Queen’s Trophy of Queen Victoria’s reign, at Cowes on 17 August 1838. This was a silver-gilt shield, maker’s mark of Benjamin Preston, retailed by Rundell, Bridge & Co.⁵

Notes

1. The Morning Advertiser, London, Wednesday, 4 August 1858, p. 3c/d

2. ‘Review of Yachting Events, 1858,’ The New Sporting Magazine, London, October 1858, pp. 267-268

3. Bell’s Life in London, Saturday, 24 October 1863, p. 7b

4. National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, acquired with the assistance of the National Heritage Memorial Fund, ID no. PLT0256

5. National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, ID no. PLT0257