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Will Power kisses the Astor Cup
after winning the IndyCar Series season championship Saturday, Aug. 30, 2014,
at Auto Club Speedway, in Fontana, Calif. (AP Photo/Will Lester)
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Once again, another Tomaso classic yarn has been
languishing in thy cellar 'O Nofendersville, or is that my Mum's basement;
Hooah! Having originally picked up this "thread" 'Wayback in
'Twenty-twelve when reading a 'lil Gem of a book titled: They Went That A-Way,
who's author Malcolm Forbes should know a thingy or three 'bout aristocracy, right?
Astor Family Swindler' Dies
Purusing my daily newspaper sources last
November via my Newsline for The Blind telephone service, I ran across the
obituary in the New York Times, regarding a one Mr. Anthony Marshall, the only
son of Brooke Astor, had died at the age of 90. And normally I would of simply
hit next on my keypad, except for the fact that he'd apparently swindled
millions from his late mother, along with the fact that the name Astor rings
silent "Alarm bells" due to its regards involving IndyCar...
Alas, with your unabashed No
Fenders Scribe having just transited the Pacific Ocean, albeit the opposite
body 'O water that this dry-docked tale's bobbing around, nevertheless what
better time to finally launch this
story...
Astor
Cup
Between 1915-16, a pair of motor races were
held on the Sheepshead Bay Speedway
in Sheepshead, New York; a 2.0-mile banked oval Board-track, which were all the
rage at the time. With the winner's trophy being commissioned by the wealthy
William Vincent Astor, who's notoriety as one of the world's wealthiest
businessmen was sure to attract attention to the race, along with gaining it prestige
in regards to the trophy's namesake.
The Sheepshead
Bay Speedway Corp. whose members
included Carl fisher, of Indianapolis Motor Speedway fame, and Cleveland's Harry Harkness bought
the assets of the then defunct Sheepshead
Bay Racetrack, formerly utilized for a
different type 'O Horsepower, aka the four legged type, ironically from William Kissam
Vanderbilt and the Coney Island Jockey Club at the
beginning of 1915.
The first Astor Cup race was held on October 9th
of the same year and attracted such luminary racing drivers as Barney Oldfield,
Dario Resta, Ralph De Palma, Eddie Rickenbacker, Howdy Wilcox and Johnny Aitken to name
just a few, with Norway's Gil Anderson winning the inaugural race in just under
three and one half hours behind the wheel of a Stutz.
After the second and final Astor Cup race in
1916, won by Aitken,
a previously unknown holder of Mother Speedway notoriety, aboard a Peugeot, other
races were held until 1919, when after the death of Mr. Harkness and the
track being in financial difficulty led to its selling off for residential real
estate development.
Further tripping
my memory banks towards this languishing story, was the reference to Sheepshead
Bay in the recently seen (last year's) most enjoyable Bill Murray movie St
Vincent; Hmm? Wasn't that where those Astor Cup races were held nearly a century
ago...
John Jacob Astor
Born: July 17, 1763
Died: March 29, 1848
Age: 84
John Jacob Astor of Waldorf, Germany, father
of eight children was the first multi-millionaire of the United States, worth
twenty million at the time of his death, approximately $110+ billion! (2006
USD) Having made his wealth originally from the Fur trade for which he gained a
monopoly of, before selling out in 1830 and diversifying into New York real
estate...
John Jacob Astor IV
Born: July 13, 1864
Died: April 15, 1912
Age: 47
John Jacob Astor IV, great grandson of John
Jacob, a man of many occupations, including Lieutenant Colonel during the Spanish American war, and subsequently
elevated to rank of Colonel afterwards...
Was reputedly known simply as
"JackAss" in the national press, most notably caused great scandal by
marrying Madeleine Talmage Force,
his junior by 29yrs, a then 18yr old Socialite Who became pregnant with the
couples only child, a son named John Jacob Astor VI...
Madeleine, who'd become
pregnant during the couples round-the-world Honeymoon desired for her child to
be born in the United States and thus, their personal Valet, Maid and Nurse,
along with their prized (Airedale
Terrier) Hoond Kity (with the dog
perishing at sea, as nobody ever mentions how many animals were euthanized in
this affair...) were all traveling aboard the RMS
Titanic upon its fateful single voyage, and after loading his wife, her maid
and nurse into lifeboat No. 4 was told no men were allowed to board until all
of the women and children had been loaded first, as Madeleine and
the maid and nurse all survived, with John and his valet perishing at sea, with
John's body being one of the 333 recovered afterwards.
At the time of Astor's death, he had an
estimated wealth of $85m ($2.77b - 2014 USD) and was the richest person aboard
Titanic...
And as I've briefly scribbled 'bout before in one
of those epic Tomaso Files tomes, the following four luxury liners were
frothing about the Atlantic Ocean in hopes of dominating the then prolific
trade of world travel in;
CUNARD
Thru a variety 'O guises of names, the Cunard
Steamship Lines, heavily financed by Britain itself originally built two
Lusitania class "Super-liners"
in order to compete against the Germans for superiority of the then
heavily contested North Atlantic trade route during the early 1900's...
RMS Mauritania
Launched: Sept 20, 1906
Maiden Voyage: Nov 16, 1907
Service Date: 1907-34
Route: South Hampton to New York
Tonnage: 31,938 GRT
Length: 790ft; Beam: 88ft. (Height: 60ft - to Boat
Deck; 165ft to Ariel's)
Passenger Decks: 8
Passengers: 2,165 (3-class total)
Crew: 802
Speed: 24 Knots
The RMS Mauritania(I) was the world's largest
passenger ship between 1907-11, and was the sister to the RMS Lusitania which
suffered a worse fate, as the Mauritania served out its useful service life before being scrapped in
1935, the only one of these four monstrous ships to survive its entire service
life expectancy, with a second passenger
ship named Mauritania going into service in 1938...
RMS Lusitania
Launched: June 7, 1906
Maiden Voyage: Sept 7, 1907
Service Date: 1907-15
Route: New York to Liverpool
Tonnage: 31,550 GRT
Length: 787ft; Beam: 87ft. (Height: 60ft - to Boat
Deck; 165ft to Ariel's)
Passenger Decks: 9
Passengers: 2,198 (3-class total)
Crew: 850
Speed: 25 Knots
The Lusitania is forever known as the catalyst for invoking
the United States to finally, reluctantly enter
the first "Great War," aka World War I after its torpedoing by
a German U-boat in May, 1915 which resulted in the death of nearly 1,200 civilians,
including 128 Americans...
WHITE STAR LINE
The company was founded in 1845 and in the
early 1900's was the chief rival of Cunard, before both companies fell afoul of
financial difficulties largely due to the great recession caused by the 1929
Stock Market crash. Britain's government agreed to give financial assistance to
Cunard on the condition that the two rival entities merge, which occurred in
1933, and today Cunard is owned, like many of today's ocean liner fleets by
Carnival...
RMS Titanic
Launched: May 31, 1911
Maiden Voyage: April 10, 1912
Service Date: April 10-15, 1912
Route: South Hampton to New York City
Tonnage: 46,328 GRT
Length: 883ft; Beam: 92ft. (Height: 175ft)
Passenger Decks: 9
Passengers: 2,435 (3-class total)
Crew: 892
Speed: 24 Knots
The RMS Titanic is the most famous of these four
passenger liner "Dread knots," due to its illustrious fate of sinking
upon its maiden voyage upon striking an Iceberg late evening April 14, 1912,
and sunk a mere 2hrs 40mins later in the early morning hours of April 15th,
claiming some 1,500-plus civilians due to its design opting for only 20
Lifeboats to accommodate a scant 1,178 passengers - approx one-third of its
intended clientele...
HMHS Britannic
Launched: Feb 26, 1914
Service Date: Dec 23, 1915 - Nov 21, 1916
Duty: Hospital Ship
Tonnage: 48,158 GRT
Length: 893ft; Beam: 94ft. (Height: 175ft)
Passenger Decks: 9
Passengers: 675 total
300 wounded with 439 medical staff
Crew: 860
Speed: 23 Knots
His Majesty's Hospital Service Britannic was the
third and largest of the Olympic class ocean liners produced, with its sister
ships being the RMS Titanic and RMS Olympic of which only the Olympic saw out
her service life, being retired in 1934 and then scrapped; whilst the HMHS Britannic
either collided with an underwater mine or was torpedoed off the Greek island Kea
in November, 1916, albeit only losing 30 civilians of the 1,066 onboard, a much
lower casualty rate vs. Titanic and Lusitania...
(GRT = Gross Registered Tons)
William Vincent Astor
Born: Nov 15, 1891
Died: Feb 3, 1959
Age: 67
William Vincent Astor was John Jacob IV's
first of two children from his first wife Ava Lowle Willing whom also had a
daughter, and after a difficult childhood, Vincent
was suddenly one of the nation's wealthiest person's, ranking number 12 upon
Forbes first annual ranking of wealth estimated at $75 million, with the advent
of his father's sudden death upon the Titanic.
Vincent immediately quit his studies at Harvard
at age 20 and focused upon the family empire instead, and is credited with
diversifying its assets along with turning valuable real estate properties into
playgrounds for children.
Vincent married three times and at age 67
died of an apparent heart attack...