Ratsey & Lapthorn is a British sail making company based in Cowes on the Isle of Wight, England and they had a loft in the United States. The loft was on Schofield Street on City Island, in the Bronx. [1] It is one of the oldest and largest sail maker in the United States. [2]
The company was established in 1796. The United States branch was established in 1902. [3] In 1958 Franklin Ratsey was chairman of the board. [4]
The written history of New York City began with the first European explorer, the Italian Giovanni da Verrazzano in 1524. European settlement began with the Dutch in 1608.
James Forten was an American abolitionist and businessman in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A free-born African American, he became a sailmaker after the American Revolutionary War. Following an apprenticeship, he became the foreman and bought the sail loft when his boss retired. Based on equipment he himself had developed, he established a highly profitable business. It was located on the busy waterfront of the Delaware River, in an area now called Penn's Landing.
City Island is a neighborhood in the northeastern Bronx in New York City, located on an island of the same name approximately 1.5 miles (2.4 km) long by 0.5 miles (0.80 km) wide. City Island is located at the extreme western end of Long Island Sound, south of Pelham Bay Park, and east of Eastchester Bay.
Herbert Claiborne Pell Jr. was a United States representative from New York, U.S. Minister to Portugal, U.S. Minister to Hungary, and a creator and member of the United Nations War Crimes Commission.
Pierre J. Lorillard IV was an American tobacco manufacturer and thoroughbred race horse owner.
The New York Yacht Club (NYYC) is a private social club and yacht club based in New York City and Newport, Rhode Island. It was founded in 1844 by nine prominent sportsmen. The members have contributed to the sport of yachting and yacht design. As of 2001, the organization was reported to have about 3,000 members. Membership in the club is by invitation only. Its officers include a commodore, vice-commodore, rear-commodore, secretary and treasurer.
The Knickerbocker Trust was a bank based in New York City that was, at one time, among the largest banks in the United States. It was a central player in the Panic of 1907.
Buildings, sites, districts, and objects in New York listed on the National Register of Historic Places:
Education in New York City is provided by a vast number of public and private institutions. New York City has the largest educational system of any city in the world. The city’s educational infrastructure spans primary education, secondary education, higher education, and research. New York City is home to some of the most important libraries, universities, and research centers in the world. In 2006, New York had the most post-graduate life sciences degrees awarded annually in the United States, 40,000 licensed physicians, and 127 Nobel laureates with roots in local institutions. The city receives the second-highest amount of annual funding from the National Institutes of Health among all U.S. cities. It also struggles with disparity in its public school system, with some of the best-performing public schools in the United States as well as some of the worst-performing. Under Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the city embarked on a major school reform effort.
George Ernest Ratsey was a British sailor who competed in the 1908 Summer Olympics. He is the father of George Colin Ratsey and Ernest Ratsey.
Frederick Emmart Hood was an American yachtsman and naval architect. He founded the sailmaker Hood Sails in Marblehead, Massachusetts in 1952. Hood Sails operated until purchased by Quantum Sails in 2017. Hood founded Little Harbor Custom Yachts in 1959 and sold it to Hinckley Yachts in 1999. He won the America's Cup in 1974 skippering the yacht Courageous, which was built at Minnefords Shipyard in City Island, New York, after which he built a what he believed to have been a faster yacht and sold Courageous to Ted Turner, who beat him in it on his way to winning the 1977 America's Cup.
George William Loft was an American businessman, politician, real estate developer, and owner/breeder of thoroughbred racehorses.
Peter Goelet was a merchant and real estate entrepreneur of New York City.
Enterprise was a 1930 yacht of the J Class and successful defender of the 1930 America's Cup for the New York Yacht Club. It was ordered by a syndicate headed by Vice-Commodore Winthrop Aldrich, designed by Starling Burgess, and built by Herreshoff Manufacturing Company.
Partridge is documented as being the world's oldest, still fully operational classic racing yacht.
The Hesper was a 19th-century Boston pilot boat built in 1884, designed from a model by Dennison J. Lawlor as a Boston yacht and pilot-boat for merchant and ship owner George W. Lawler. She was known to be the largest pilot boat under the American flag at 104 feet long and the fastest of the Boston fleet. She competed in several first-class sailing races, and in 1886, the Hesper won the silver cup in what was known as the first Fishermen's Race. She was withdrawn from the pilot service and sold in 1901. The Hesper became a wreck on the point off Cape Henlopen in 1919.
The Fleur de Lis was a 19th-century yacht and pilot boat built in 1865 by J. B. Van Deusen for Captain John S. Dickerson of the New York Yacht Club. She was bought by pilot Franklin B. Wellock and became the Boston pilot boat No. 7. She was known as one of the best pilot boats in the Boston harbor. By 1904, the pilot boat Fleur de Lis was lying in a graveyard for old boats in East Boston.
Ambrose A. Martin, was a 19th-century Boston, Massachusetts yacht and boat shipbuilder. He built the Ambrose A. Martin shipyard in 1882 at Jeffries Point, East Boston, where he built many notable Boston yachts and schooners. Martin died in Boston in 1934.
Andrew Jackson Comstock was a 19th-century maritime pilot. He was one of the most experienced yachtsman having sailed for more than 27 years. He was known for being the captain of the racing yachts Columbia and Magic that won races for the America's Cup.
Franklin Osgood was a 19th-century businessman and yachtsman. He was one of the most experienced yachtsman having sailed for more than 23 years. He was owner and manager of the racing yachts Widgeon, Columbia, and Magic. He was the first defender and two-time winner of the America's Cup. Osgood was inducted into the America's Cup Hall of Fame in 2020.
The sensation caused in British yachting circles by the announcement that Ratsey Lapthorn, the English sailmakers, who have an establishment at City Island, N.Y., have been given orders for suits of sails for the Reliance, the Constitution, and the Columbia, can be best judged by an editorial article which appears in The Yachting World of April 30 under the heading, 'An International Contest.'
Ratsey Lapthorn's sail loft is on Schofield Street on City Island, the Bronx. And most of the venerable company's 75 employes live within a mile of the loft -- the oldest and largest in the United States. But the company's search for craftsmen and potential craftsmen to make the sails has extended to London and will soon go to Scandinavia, Italy and to the Vienna center for European refugees.
Plant of Ratsey and Lapthorn, Inc., on Schofield Street near City Island Avenue, is the American unit of Ratsey and Lapthorn, Ltd. (1796), world-famous sailmakers. (Visitors admitted.) Established in this country since 1902, ...
He was Capt. Franklin Ratsey, chairman of the board of Ratsey and Lapthorn, Ltd., of Gosport, England. ...