Unapologetic Playboy, But Shrewd
In 1889, the bilingual Gordon Bennett became a founding member of the Automobile Club de France (ACF).
In 1900, the Gordon Bennett Automobile Cup was the first International motoring competition, serving as the precursor to Grand Prix racing.
Bennett junior was spoilt rotten (Blame the parents).
If the term "born with a silver spoon in your mouth" could be applied to anyone, it would certainly apply to James Gordon Bennett Jr.
If you have ever heard the exclamation “Gordon Bennett!”, its origins lie with this man.
Born into immense wealth, he was the son of multi-millionaire James Gordon Bennett Sr., an innovative newspaper publisher who founded the New York Herald in 1835 and transformed it into the best-selling newspaper in America.
James Gordon Bennett Jr., more commonly known simply as Gordon Bennett to distinguish him from his father, was born in New York in 1841 but spent much of his youth in France, where he attended the École Polytechnique in Paris, specializing in science and engineering.
For his visits to New York, his father had a child's desk installed in his office so that his son had a place to work, where he would learn everything about journalism and, when the time came, take over from his father.
He bought 16-year-old Gordon Bennett a 78-ton sloop called Rebecca, and one year later, Junior was winning races in it.
A fiercely competitive sportsman, skilled sailor, and unapologetic playboy, he inherited his father’s innovative genes.
Upon returning to New York from France in 1861, he took delivery of his brand-new 205-ton pleasure yacht, the Henrietta, named after his Irish mother.
It was launched from the shipyard of Henry Steers at Greenpoint, Brooklyn, a few days after his 20th birthday.
1861: Gordon Bennett Enlists in the Union Navy
In the same year, he enlisted in the Union Navy and volunteered the brand-new Henrietta for the U.S. Revenue Marine Service during the American Civil War (1861–1865).
Bennett was commissioned as a third lieutenant and assigned to the U.S. Henrietta.
He returned to civilian life in 1862.
First Transatlantic Yacht Race (1866)
The transatlantic race stemmed from a drunken wager Gordon Bennett Jr. made with two friends at the exclusive Union Club on Park Avenue, New York, in October.
As they drank, Gordon Bennett, Pierre Lorillard (a tobacco merchant), and George Osgood (a financier)—three immensely wealthy friends—began extolling the merits of their respective yachts.
Despite the fact that Bennett’s Henrietta had already been defeated by both of his friends' vessels in races around the Cape May Lighthouse the previous year, they each resolved to throw $30,000 into the pot to see which ship would come first in a race all the way to Cowes, England.
Not only that, but the ships would race across the North Atlantic Ocean in the hazardous winter seas on December 11th, just two months later.
The Yacht Henrietta (205 Tons, Launched in 1861)
No Mean Challenge
Bennett, the only one of the three to hazard the undertaking and sail with his ship, scored a coup by managing to hire the experienced Samuel Samuels—the renowned captain and designer of the famed Dreadnought clipper—as his skipper.
All of the ships had been as thoroughly prepared as possible for the daunting but potentially lucrative challenge ahead.
The owners of the Fleetwing and the Vesta, in their absence, had hired professional captains to keep the odds in their favour.
Meanwhile, Bennett Sr. dispatched his star reporter, Stephen Fisk, who smuggled himself aboard the Henrietta in a crate of champagne to cover the story.
The Transatlantic Yacht Race
Three vessels—the Henrietta (owned by 25-year-old Bennett), the Fleetwing (owned by Osgood), and the Vesta (owned by Lorillard)—set off for the Isle of Wight in freezing conditions on Tuesday, December 11th, 1866. The starting point was four miles east of Sandy Hook Lightship, overlooked by the New York Yacht Club steamer River Queen.
On the eighth day, the three ships, still racing neck and neck, encountered a gale.
Of the three, the Henrietta chose to heave to and remained so for thirteen hours.
Enduring treacherous conditions, the Vesta and the Fleetwing carried on.
The latter, in the turbulence of the storm, lost six of the eight men on watch overboard.
Despite searching the stormy seas in the dark for five hours, none of the men were recovered.
James Gordon Bennett jr
England: Christmas Day
The Henrietta arrived off the Needles, Isle of Wight, England, at 5:45 p.m. on December 25th, 1866, winning the race and completing the run in 13 days and 22 hours (mean time).
They were, in fact, the first to arrive, though they did not know for certain until entering Cowes at 5:40 p.m. to cheers from the waterfront.
The subdued Fleetwing arrived eight hours later, followed by the Vesta, which—by rights—should have preceded the Fleetwing. However, a navigational error caused by mistaking St. Catherine’s Lighthouse near Niton for the Needles Light forced them to double back, arriving 90 minutes later.
Notwithstanding the challenge of sailing the Henrietta across the finish line at Cowes first—and winning the $60,000 prize (equivalent to around $10–$12 million today)—Bennett was also intent on breaking the September 1854 record set by the clipper James Baines, captained by Charles McDonnell, which had made the run in 12 days and six hours.
This, however, was not to be, and the record still stands today.
By 1867, at just 26 years old, Bennett was Vice-Commodore of the New York Yacht Club (NYYC).
He would later become its youngest Commodore at the age of 30 and remains its only two-term Commodore.
The America's Cup
Bennett was also instrumental in reviving the America’s Cup yacht race by participating in and winning the first transoceanic yacht race in December 1866.
The America’s Cup had languished unchallenged since its initial acquisition in 1851, when the Royal Yacht Squadron’s “£100 Cup” challenge—initiated by Thomas Egerton, the 2nd Earl of Wilton—was won by the America, representing the New York Yacht Club.
On August 22nd, 1851, the America prevailed over 15 yachts of the Royal Yacht Squadron in a clockwise race around the Isle of Wight, securing the trophy that was subsequently renamed the America’s Cup.
Following in His Father's Footsteps
In 1866, Gordon Bennett Jr. took over as managing editor of the New York Herald upon his father’s retirement.
He revived an afternoon edition, The Evening Telegram, which focused on crime, light news, and gossip, employing a more sensationalist style of journalism.
Bennett sought not only to report news but also to create it.
He financed Henry Morton Stanley’s expedition (1869–1871) to find Dr. David Livingstone—the missing medical missionary and explorer—in central Africa. This led to the famous encounter that produced the legendary phrase: “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?”
Bennett also backed George W. De Long’s voyage to the North Pole on the USS Jeannette via the Bering Strait.
The ill-fated expedition ended in tragedy, with De Long and 19 of his crew dying of starvation—a catastrophe that boosted the Herald’s circulation.
Driving a Four-in-Hand
On one occasion, while driving a carriage with his friend Jennie Jerome, Bennett took a corner too fast, tipping the carriage over and nearly killing them both. Luck was on their side, and both survived.
Jennie Jerome went on to marry Lord Randolph Churchill and later gave birth to a son—Winston—in November 1874.
Breaking the Monopoly
In 1885, Gordon Bennett co-founded the Commercial Cable Company and laid three undersea communication cables between Nova Scotia and Europe. These cables landed at Le Havre and Weston-super-Mare, with another three planned.
Their goal was to break the near-monopoly held by magnate Jay Gould on transatlantic telegraphy and to reduce communication costs.
1887 4th October
Bennett Jr. established the European edition of the New York Herald, a four-page daily newspaper written in English and aimed at the American community in Paris.
As a keen sportsman, he introduced athletic coverage well ahead of rival newspapers.
Inspiration for the First International Motor Race
In 1889 Gordon Bennett was contacted by Alexander Winton an American car manufacturer who wanted to challenge Monsieur Fernand Charron to come to the USA and race against Winton's cars.
Charron had just won the May 24th 565km Paris–Bordeaux motor race driving a Panhard, but had also won the Marseille-Nice and Paris-Amsterdam-Paris races the year before.
Could Mr Bennett mediate?