1906 Hudson River Water Carnival
Real Motor Boat Records Possible At Last To Secure Authentic Standards For America
When the entry list is completed for the motor boat carnival to be held on the Hudson River during the week of Sept. 10 to 15 it will comprise one of the greatest that has ever been compiled for a similar event. The inclusion of the record-breaking trials in the programme, which have been a feature of the Monaco races abroad, and which have never been held in America, except once, at Palm Beach, over an unmeasured and unauthentic course, should prove to be the most interesting feature of a wholly exceptional week of events. There has never been an attempt made to give America motor boat records of real value, and this attempt will afford a test of merit which hitherto motor boat enthusiasts appeared to dodge. There have been fanciful marks credited to Challenger which many doubt if she ever made. There have been records claimed by Dixie which have not been satisfactory, and Argo and Den are both credited with designer's trials which are not supported by other than interested testimony.
All the famous racers, almost without exception, will be contestants in the coming carnival. Challenger will, of course, be absent, for she has passed out of existence, but Dixie will be there, and Den and Panhard and Standard and Argo and others whose named are better or not as well known.
Dixie is the winner of the international trophy of last year. Argo in her one race beat all the highest class boats that were out against her, and was credited with an exceptional trial by her designer. She is the boat built for George W. Childs Drexel and shipped immediately to Maine, where she has remained ever since. Den II will be there, the marvelous Herreshoff Hoadley production, which was said to be capable of thirty-five miles an hour, and which has never run twenty minutes at full speed yet. Xpdnc will be there, the best boat on actual performance that has yet been seen in America, which, besides making excellent time over shorter distances, made the distance from New York to Poughkeepsie and back in fine time. And there will be last of all the new motor boat of Richard Croker Jr., which is expected to develop more than 30 knots, the first time it has ever been done in America. The facts about the Croker boat, even to her name, are carefully guarded. Mr. Croker replying to all questions that the truth will be known about her when she is seen in a race. She has a foreign-built engine in her, and her hull is by Herreshoff. That much is known.
It is expected that all of the boats with the possible exception of Jonathan Wainwright's Chip II, which figured at Alexandria Bay, will be there. Charles J. Swain's Sparrow certainly will, also W. Sharpe Kilmer's Vingt-et-Un II. Then there will be the Mercedes U.S.A., Skeeter, now owned by R. J. Collier; Shooting Star II and Panhard II, to say nothing of White Fox, Silver Fox and Simplex IV, al well-known boats.
One of the most interesting boats to appear will be Payne Whitney's remarkable Artful, which is undoubtedly a very fast boat, and the Brush By, Dreamer III, Sheboygan, Arcadia, Beldame, Colonia, and Skedaddle. The cabin types will receive a great deal more than ever before in an effort to find out just what can be done by these cruising types, which are the real utility types in motor boats.
[Transcribed from the New York Times, Aug. 26, 1906, Sect. II, p. 5.]
[Thanks to Greg Calkins for help in preparing this page. —LF]