Pynchon & Company

[robinlandseadel at comcast.net]

You have to scroll down to get to the point, but there, near the bottom of the 
article is 

. . . .On the Conrad were George M. Pynchon Jr., crack blue-water yachtsman, and 
Vadim Makaroff, son of a Russian admiral . . . .


TIME, Monday, Sep. 06, 1937

Dinner Race

Except in the harbors of Finland and the Australian grain ports, nowhere else in 
the world was a sight to be seen like the spectacle last week on the blue water 
off Newport, R. I. Two oldtime, square-rigged windjammers sailed off together on 
a voyage. They were bound southeast few Bermuda, 660 miles away. So far as 
anyone knew this was the first formal match race in U. S. sailing history 
between two square-riggers, privately owned and under yacht pennants. Prizes 
were a special trophy offered by Commodore Van Santvoord Merle-Smith of the 
Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club (Oyster Bay, L. I.) and a dinner for all hands, 
to be consumed in Bermuda and paid for by the losing owner.

With a spanking breeze on the quarter the two ships might have expected to scud 
down to their destination in three or four days. The bigger of the two, the 
168-ft. Seven Seas, once had a speed of 18 knots entered in her log (five knots 
better than the best time of the sloop-rigged America's Cup-winning Ranger). But 
the breeze last week was light and from the south, too close for the 
three-masters to lay a straight course. It seemed likely that the race might 
last a fortnight. The two old hookers had met several times before—on 
the Baltic. Seven Seas was a Swedish training ship launched in 1912. U. S. 
Yachtsman Inglis Uppercu bought her in 1929. sold her last year to 74-year-old 
William S. Gubelmann (National Cash Register Co.). Joseph Conrad, older (1882), 
smaller (116 ft.), chunkier, was also a training ship—used by the Danish 
Government for 52 years. Three years ago Author-Adventurer Alan Villiers saw her 
in Copenhagen, heard she was for sale, snapped her up. took a crew of eight 
nationalities on a picaresque world cruise, wrote a book about it (Cruise of the 
Conrad), then sold the ship to 24-year-old George Huntington Hartford II. A. & 
P. (chain stores) scion. Both ships still carried age-browned canvas last week 
but their quarters have been luxuriously remodeled. Joseph Conrad boasts 
electric lights, shower baths, a ventilating system, an electric call board for 
the captain.
Captain of the Conrad is Alexis Troonin, an oldtimer who learned his seamanship 
in Russian waters. Captain of Seven Seas is Hans Milton, who served as a cadet 
on the ship when she was known as Abraham Rydberg. Both crews include 
seamy professionals as well as enthusiastic amateurs. Owner Gubelmann was not 
aboard Seven Seas last week but his son Walter was. So was 18-year-old George 
Emlen Roosevelt Jr., cousin of the President, who has crossed the Atlantic 14 
times under sail. On the Conrad were George M. Pynchon Jr., crack blue-water 
yachtsman, and Vadim Makaroff, son of a Russian admiral and second husband of 
young Owner Hartford's thrice-married sister, Marie Josephine Hartford O'Donnell 
Makaroff Douglas.
Because of her disadvantage in size, Joseph Conrad was granted a time allowance, 
but the race committee had not figured out last week what the allowance should 
be. Also undisclosed was the menu of the prize dinner.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,758173,00.html


Yachts

Last week scores of costly marine playthings sported along the Atlantic 
seaboard. In the final, climactic race of the New York Yacht Club cruise, 
Secretary of the Navy Charles Francis Adams, persistent vacationist, piloted 
Gerard B. Lambert's Vanitie to beat George M. Pynchon's Istalena for the
King of England's cup. . . .

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,752027,00.html