The Original BLOODHOUND

BLOODHOUND lived from 1874 to 1922 and died in the bitter flames of a fire at the J. Samuel White & Company shipyard in Cowes, England, in 1922. She is still a legend.

Around 1874, a new yacht—a 60-tonner under the early rating formula called the Thames Measurement Rule—had been commissioned at the William Fife & Son shipyard, but the client died suddenly, leaving his yacht scarcely in frame and the bill unpaid. Two racing sailors, one of them the Marquess of Ailsa, asked, independently of each other, to buy her. The Marquess stepped aside, and instead requested that William Fife II design and build for him a new 40-tonner to replace his famous FOXHOUND, which had headed her class from 1870 but was showing her age. Fife had a deep understanding of what made a yacht fast, and the new yacht, to be called BLOODHOUND, would take its place among his masterpieces.

The Marquess was high-profile in the sailing world—a passionate sailor who was elected to membership of the Royal Yacht Squadron in his early 20s and who acquired a master’s certificate in navigation the same year BLOODHOUND was launched. He eventually owned his own boatbuilding yard under the stewardship of young “Will” Fife III. In 1871, he had won a highly coveted Queen’s Cup with FOXHOUND at Cowes, becoming one of very few owners to win at their first entry, and a full 18 years since the reigning sovereign’s prize had been awarded to such a small boat. (Two more Queen’s Cups would follow for him, with BLOODHOUND’s successor, SLEUTHOUND, in 1882 and ’85.)