View source for Defender (1895 yacht)

{{Short description|America's Cup champion}}
{{Infobox Americas Cup Yacht
| title        = Defender
| shortname    =
| image        = Defender(yacht).jpg
| caption      = ''Defender'' on July 20, 1895, six weeks before the 1895 America's Cup.
| club         = {{yachtclub|New York Yacht Club}}
| year         =
| nat          = <!--{{USN flag||Civil}} [[United States]]-->{{flagcountry|USA|1895}}
| ac_year      = 1895
| designer     = [[Nathanael Greene Herreshoff]]
| builder      = [[Herreshoff Manufacturing Company]]
| launched     = 1895
| owner        = [[William Kissam Vanderbilt]],<br />Edwin Dennison Morgan,<br />Charles Oliver Iselin
| ceo          =
| skip         = Henry C. Haff
| crew         =
| wins         = 1895 America's Cup<br />1895 Defender Trials
| boats        =
| fate         = Broken up in 1901
| displacement = 151.5 tons
| length       = {{convert|123|ft|0|in|m|abbr=on}} [[Length overall|LOA]]<br/>{{convert|89|ft|1.5|in|m|abbr=on}} [[waterline length|LWL]]
| beam         = {{convert|23|ft|1|in|m|abbr=on}}
| draft        = {{convert|19|ft|1|in|m|abbr=on}}
| sail         = {{convert|12,602|sqft|m2|abbr=on}}<ref name="Jones2004">
{{cite book
|first=Gregory O.
|last=Jones
|title=Herreshoff Sailboats
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c6C_XPostscC&pg=PA68
|accessdate=2012-02-18
|date=25 December 2004
|publisher=Voyageur Press
|isbn=978-0-7603-1160-8
|page=68
}}</ref>
| notes        =
}}
'''''Defender''''' was the victorious [[United States]] defender of the tenth [[America's Cup]] in 1895 against challenger ''[[Valkyrie III (yacht)|Valkyrie III]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.herreshoff.org/achof/cup_winner.html|title=America's Cup Winners|publisher=Herreshoff Marine Museum|accessdate=2012-07-23|archive-date=2015-12-19|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151219012606/http://www.herreshoff.org/achof/cup_winner.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> Defender was designed by [[Nathanael Greene Herreshoff]] and built by the [[Herreshoff Manufacturing Company]] in 1895. It was Herreshoff's second victorious America's Cup defender design.
==Design==
''Defender'' was a sloop with all-metal construction: steel, aluminum, and manganese bronze.  It was owned by [[William Kissam Vanderbilt]], Edwin Dennison Morgan and Charles Oliver Iselin, and skippered by [[Henry C. Haff]].
==Career==
''Defender'' defeated the New York Yacht Club's ''[[Vigilant (yacht)|Vigilant]]'' then went on to defend the cup against British keel [[Cutter (ship)|cutter]] ''[[Valkyrie III (yacht)|Valkyrie III]]''. [[Windham Wyndham-Quin, 4th Earl of Dunraven and Mount-Earl|Lord Dunraven]] of the Valkyrie alleged cheating by the Defender's crew.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Thompson|first1=Winfield Martin|last2=Lawson|first2=Thomas W.|title=The Lawson History of the America's Cup: A Record of Fifty Years|date=1902|publisher=Ashford Press|isbn=1332438806|pages=179–196|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w1Z3GFPbbEQC&pg=PA180-IA1|accessdate=20 April 2018}}</ref>
Following the contest, ''Defender'' was towed to the residence of [[C. Oliver Iselin]] in [[New Rochelle, New York]] where it remained docked for four years without sailing. In 1899 J. Pierpont Morgan and W. Buttler Duncan rebuilt Defender to race trials against the America's Cup defense candidate, ''[[Columbia (1899 yacht)|Columbia]]''.<ref>{{cite book|first=Jean|last=Strouse|edition=reprint, illustrated |publisher=[[HarperCollins]]|year=2000 |isbn=0060955899 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ojtk_o-xElwC&pg=PT390|pages=373–375 |title=Morgan: American Financier |accessdate=2012-07-23}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|first=Richard V.|last=Simpson|publisher=[[The History Press]] |year=2012|isbn=978-1609496340 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I_gVW9MuH1wC&pg=PA29 |title=The Quest for America's Cup: Sailing to Victory|accessdate=2012-07-23}}</ref>
The yacht was towed to Herreshoff's Bristol yard for restoration to enable it to race in the selection trials for the 1899 defence. Following the selection trials, Defender returns to its mooring and was finally broken up in 1901.
==Model==
Model of ''Defender'' on display at the [[MIT Museum]]
{{Gallery
|title=
|align=center
|File:Defender 1895-IMG 5946-white.jpg|overall view, showing the hull (including the keel) and rigging
|File:Defender 1895-IMG 5953.JPG|Bow
|File:Defender 1895-IMG 5949.JPG|Mast
|File:Defender 1895-IMG 5947.JPG|Aft
|File:Defender 1895-IMG 5957.JPG|Rigging
}}
==References==
{{reflist}}
==External links==
{{commons category|Defender (ship, 1895)}}
* {{cite news|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1895/05/02/106060893.pdf|title=Faster than Vigilant|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=2 May 1895}}
* {{cite news|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1898/08/13/102566356.pdf|title=To Build the New Defender|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=13 August 1895}}
* [http://www.herreshoff.org/ Herreshoff Marine Museum] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071229000259/http://www.herreshoff.org/ |date=2007-12-29 }}
* [http://www.americascup.com/en/acclopaedia/circlinggalaxy/bateau.php?idContent=4690/ America's Cup  Ac-clopaedia]
* [http://www.jsjohnston.org/ John S. Johnston's Yacht Photography of the 1890s]
{{America's Cup Yachts}}
{{America'sCup}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Defender (Yacht)}}
[[Category:America's Cup defenders]]
[[Category:Individual sailing vessels]]
[[Category:Yachts of New York Yacht Club members]]
[[Category:Sailboat type designs by Nathanael Greene Herreshoff]]