His name is still used as an exclamation of shock, surprise and even outrage – and with some justification. James Gordon Bennett, reckless, feckless playboy son of the owner of the New York Herald is both hero and anti-hero of this wild tale of a three-yacht Transatlantic race, the result of a drunken bet that set off from New York in December 1866.
Sam Jefferson, a shrewd social historian with a direct, conversational style of writing, puts the race into the context of an America just one year on from the end of the Civil War and on the verge of crazy industrial expansion. The race was supposed to celebrate the inauguration of the Transatlantic telephone cable – which ironically failed just as the boats reached Cowes and the result was ready to be sent back to New York.
It’s a vastly entertaining read, full of larger-than-life characters (Bennett, the only owner to sail in the race, engaged the legendary Samuel Samuels as his skipper) and of colourful anecdotes of both sailing and shoreside skulduggery.
£16.99. PW adlardcoles.com
