My father at once determined to win this
prize; the idea became a perfect obsession with him, and he
determined to have a special boat built. When we returned to
England, he went to Oxford and entered into long consultations
with a famous boat-builder there. The boat, a four-oar, had to be
built on special lines. She must be light and fast, yet capable of
withstanding a heavy sea, for off Cannes the Mediterranean can be
very lumpy indeed, and it would be obviously inconvenient to have
the boat swamped, and her crew all drowned. The boat-builder
having mastered the conditions, felt certain that he could turn
out the craft required, which my father proposed to stroke
himself.
When we returned to Cannes in 1866, the completed boat was sent
out by sea, and we saw her released from her casing with immense
interest. She was christened in due form, with a bottle of
champagne, by our first cousin, the venerable Lady de Ros, and
named the Abercorn. Lady de Ros was a daughter of the Duke of
Richmond, and had been present at the famous ball in Brussels on
the eve of Waterloo in 1815; a ball given by her father in honour
of her youngest sister.
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