The Low Black Schooner

The history of that world-renowned racing yacht, the 1851 schooner America, written by yachting journalist and historian John Rousmaniere, is illustrated with paintings, photographs and drawings from sources here and in Europe. America's great achievement was the victory in 1851 that brought what came to be called the America's Cup to these shores, and The Low Black Schooner devotes its first pages to that dramatic story. But John Rousmaniere gives equal attention to her subsequent history, some of it obscure, from cruises and campaigns under English ownership, to Confederate States service, to an up-and-down career as a U.S. Navy vessel, and finally to her scrapping at the Trumpy yacht yard in Annapolis, where her remains yielded $990.90 worth of lead and salvageable wood. The illustrations in this book, many in color, include some great paintings, along with lines plan, rigging plan and sailplan drawings from the 1850s.