Sloop Yacht Defender

Yacht Defender
Antonio Jacobsen, signed, 1897    

In 1895, Defender was built at the Herreshoff Company in Bristol, Rhode Island and successfully defended the America's Cup, with a crew from Deer Isle, Maine. Defender was radical, having a bronze bottom and aluminum topsides, creating a floating battery, which dissolved aluminum. She was dismantled in 1901, but was functional long enough to challenge the new Columbia in 1899 to become the Cup defender. 

C. Oliver Iselin, manager of the five Cup defenses from 1893 to 1903, sent Captain Hank Haff to Deer Island to recruit a crew of fishermen. Most large yachts then had Scandinavian immigrants as crew; Iselin wanted an “American” one. "The Deer Isle Boys," as the crew was known in newspapers, were popular, the equivalent of the New England Patriots or the Red Sox today. Sailing was then a professional sport; sailors found yachting easier than fishing or sailing commercial ships. Today, sailing large yachts is again a profession.